KJCKorea
Journal Central

The current study discussed the multi-layered characteristics and meaning of the death of Bang Sojeo in <Bangssijeon>, which is a Korean-version story that makes a part of <Yusaengjeon>, a fictional bibliographical love story in the 19th Century. In <Baengssijeon>, Bang Sojeo's death has multi-layered characteristics including tragedy in that she kills herself in a carriage for faith, a fantasy in that she revives around the graveyard after a sexual intercourse, and entertainment in that she participates in deceiving parents. The multi- layered character has the following meaning: the sexual suppression of the ideology that demands fidelity leads to the tragedy of suicide and it is distorted by the fantasy of revival after a sexual intercourse. And again, the entertainment of deceiving parents distorts the ideology of familial devotion. In this respect, <Bangssijeon>, unlike <Yusaengjeon>, is similar to heroic novels, transformed into an epic of a love story of a devoted woman with no heroic story and was mainly enjoyed by women as it distorted the suppression of contemporary women of the time using various rules of bibliographical novels.

Yusaengjeon, Bangssijeon, Woman's death, Tragedy, Fantasy, Entertainment