KJCKorea
Journal Central

This article analyzes variations of the heaven-ordained union(天定緣), a recurrent narrative motif in classical Korean fiction traditionally associated with marital destiny and harmonious resolution, focusing on Ssangcheongibong and Myeonghaengjeonguirok. In earlier scholarship, the heaven-ordained union has been understood primarily as a narrative device that legitimizes romantic relationships by transcending parental opposition and social or status-based constraints, thereby ensuring the successful culmination of marriage. However, these two late Joseon- period works present distinct departures from this conventional function. In Ssangcheongibong(18th century), the heaven-ordained union compels the female character Sowolhye to enter and sustain an unwanted marriage, producing a prolonged experience of conjugal suffering rather than emotional fulfillment. The motif thus operates as a narrative mechanism that restricts female agency and frames marital hardship within a fatalistic logic. By contrast, Myeonghaengjeonguirok (19th century) depicts the female character Soyeoju’s deliberate fabrication and appropriation of a heaven-ordained union in order to achieve self- arranged marriage(自媒), a practice normatively prohibited for upper- class women. In this case, the heaven-ordained union functions not as an unquestioned expression of transcendent will but as a manipulable discourse mobilized to authorize individual desire. Through comparative analysis of these two works, this article demonstrates that the heaven-ordained union is not a fixed ideological construct but a flexible narrative element subject to transformation. The observed variations highlight how classical Korean fiction generates new meanings through the repetition and modification of familiar motifs, while also engaging with contemporary marital norms and gendered social constraints.

This study examines ghost tales involving non-infectious diseases in Chosŏn-period p’ilgi and yadam literature, focusing on narratives in which ghosts are presented as the direct cause of illness. It explores how non-infectious diseases were imagined and narrativized within the medical and cultural context of the time. Such ghost tales most frequently appear in cases of mental disturbance or illnesses whose causes were difficult to determine. This suggests that ghosts were not invoked as a uniform explanatory device for all diseases, but were selectively mobilized for conditions that exceeded the diagnostic limits of contemporary medicine. In these narratives, human resolve, medical knowledge, and personal capability are strongly emphasized, and stories of successful cure are relatively common. This tendency reflects the characteristics of non- infectious diseases, which allowed direct human intervention and therapeutic attempts due to the absence of contagion risk. Ghosts, though identified as the cause of illness, are rarely depicted as objects of absolute reverence or terror; rather, they are often portrayed as beings that can be subdued by force or controlled through human-led negotiation. The figures who overcome disease-causing ghosts are typically endowed with the ability to perceive supernatural beings and with exceptional physical or mental strength, although such requirements gradually become less strict in later periods. Moreover, these tales frequently depict solidarity between patients and surrounding individuals, human-initiated negotiation, and even humorous or satirical attitudes toward ghosts. The active social interaction surrounding the patient and the varied hierarchies that structure human–ghost relations can be understood as narrative consequences of a medical condition that does not threaten the entire community with contagion. In this respect, non-infectiousness functioned not merely as a medical attribute but as a significant structural condition shaping the narrative logic and cultural imagination of disease-related ghost tales in Chosŏn Korea.

This study analyzes the narrative correlation between the Korean folktale “I Live by My Own Fortune” and Kim Suji’s web novel “Under the Oak Tree” to examine patterns of modern inheritance and variation of traditional folktale narratives. “I Live by My Own Fortune” is a representative classical Korean narrative structured around father- daughter conflict and male-female union. In this tale, the third daughter’s process of achieving independence through confrontation with her wealthy father unfolds through a structure of latent conflict, overt conflict, triumph, and forgiveness. In the latent conflict phase, the wealthy father’s confirmation and display of control over his daughters plants the seeds of conflict between himself and the third daughter. In the overt conflict phase, the father’s demands become explicit, and the third daughter’s refusal emerges openly. The father-daughter conflict reaches its climax when the wealthy father coercively exercises his control by forcing the third daughter into marriage. In the triumph phase, the third daughter’s success and the wealthy father’s downfall are depicted. This triumph belongs to both the third daughter and her husband, the charcoal-burner. In the forgiveness phase, the third daughter forgives her father. The father pays the price for his wrongdoing, and the third daughter forgives him after he has suffered the consequences. The web novel “Under the Oak Tree” shares the structure of latent conflict, overt conflict, and triumph from the folktale “I Live by My Own Fortune”. As in the folktale, during the latent conflict phase, the wealthy father Duke Croyso treats his two daughters as instruments for fulfilling his own desires and displays his control over them. In the overt conflict phase, Maximillian Croyso, corresponding to the third daughter, is forced by her father Duke Croyso to marry Riftan, a knight of humble and impoverished origins, and relocates to Riftan’s barren territory. In the triumph phase, Maximillian and Riftan’s struggles to transform the barren territory into a prosperous one are depicted, and their efforts succeed. While Riftan’s territory grows powerful, Duke Croyso’s influence diminishes and weakens. Throughout this process, Maximillian contributes to building the territory as Riftan’s equal partner. The daughter, who believed herself incapable without the wealth and power inherited from her father, transforms through marriage into a competent ruler. However, significant differences also exist between the two works. In “I Live by My Own Fortune”, the third daughter forgives her fallen father and restores their relationship, whereas in “Under the Oak Tree”, Maximillian does not forgive her father. This narrative choice reflects a contemporary orientation that presents complete separation from an unjust parent as the fulfillment of personal growth. Thus, the comparison of these two works demonstrates that the narrative of “I Live by My Own Fortune” maintains its popular appeal today, while also revealing that contemporary narratives do not simply replicate it but vary it according to present-day sensibilities. This confirms that oral folktales are not relics confined to a specific genre form that have disappeared, but living narratives that are continuously transmitted and recreated through new media and narrative forms.