KJCKorea
Journal Central

This paper aims to find the syntactic rules of the narrative in the agricultural origin myth <Segyeongbonpuri> and analyze the meaning of the narrative based on those rules. This myth is a narrative of a ‘female human’ becoming a ‘female god’, and the change from the initial situation to the final situation of the entire narrative is well expressed through the syntactic rules of the mythemes, which is the unit form of the transformation stage that constitutes the narrative. This can be expressed as a system of opposition between ‘meeting Moon-doryeong’ and ‘parting with Moon-doryeong’, and ‘killing Jeongsunam’ and ‘saving Jeongsunam’. In the entire narrative, Jacheongbi kills Jeongsunam to meet Moon-doryeong, and then breaks up with Moon-doryeong to save Jeongsunam. In this process, Jacheongbi overcomes the limitations of her innate ontological identity, becomes a goddness in the heavenly world, and ultimately takes her place as an goddess of agriculture in the human world. According to the syntactic rules of <Segyeongbonpuri>, the entire narrative is centered around the narratives of Jacheongbi and Jeongsunam, and in the position system of agricultural gods, unlike Jacheongbi and Jeongsunam, Mun-doryeong exists only in name. Also, if we understand the actions and roles of Jacheongbi within the opposing system of ‘killing people’ and ‘saving people,’ the process of Jacheongbi becoming an goddess of agriculture and its implications become clearer. After repeated acts of killing and reviving, Jacheongbi chose agriculture as the best way to save many people on earth. This myth is about the ontological transformation of a female human born as an imperfect being. She demonstrates the ability to overcome the ontological constraints of ‘female /male’ and ‘human/god’ and is reborn as an independent being who chooses for herself rather than a being subordinate to someone. And her story tells us that the most necessary value for ‘living’ for imperfect humans on earth is agriculture.

Segyeongbonpuri, myth of the origin of agriculture, myth of female hero, syntactic rules, narrative semantics, paradigm, binary opposition