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Female Character’s Movement and Place Experience in “Igongbonpuri” and “Munjeonbonpuri”

  • The Research of the Korean Classic
  • 2021, (53), pp.359-388
  • DOI : 10.20516/classic.2021.53.359
  • Publisher : The Research Of The Korean Classic
  • Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature > Korean Literature > Korean classic prose
  • Received : April 15, 2021
  • Accepted : May 10, 2021
  • Published : May 31, 2021

Sinjeong Kim 1

1호남대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study examined the movement and place experiences of the female characters of “Igongbonpuri” and “Moonjeonbonpuri”, which contributed to the formation of identity as a goddess and explored their movement patterns and the meaning of their experiences. “Igongbonpuri” and “Munjeonbonpuri” have several points in common. First there is a problem of “after” marriage and childbirth for female characters. In other words, after the creation of a family, the husband has to leave the house, and the female characters also leave the house, and the family is scattered. Second, the wandering female characters are killed by someone outside the house. The mythical world forms a more gendered space than the real world. The movement of female characters has no destination in the spaces of the mythical world that are gendered centered on men. Furthermore, there is no where women are protected or belong to. If movement of male characters is purpose-oriented, the wandering female character’s movement is relationship-oriented. Male characters move out of the house and then by anchor or confine their space is to be narrowed their space, while female characters experience death and then expand their space as the body spreads horizontally and vertically. In short, through the spatial experience of movement and death, female characters create a new meaning in the place by themselves and form a special mythical space. In Western mythology, death was interpreted as a destiny that even God could not solve and was negative. However, in Korean mythology, death acts as an opportunity for regeneration, and female characters inevitably become gods through death. In other words, the place experience of female characters in myth becomes a mechanism to establish the identity of a character in myth.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.