@article{ART003271750},
author={Han Yujin},
title={Sensory Residue, Material Return, and the Configuration of Mourning in the Folktale The Bride Abandoned on the First Night},
journal={The Research of the Korean Classic},
issn={1226-3850},
year={2025},
number={71},
pages={65-92}
TY - JOUR
AU - Han Yujin
TI - Sensory Residue, Material Return, and the Configuration of Mourning in the Folktale The Bride Abandoned on the First Night
JO - The Research of the Korean Classic
PY - 2025
VL - null
IS - 71
PB - The Research Of The Korean Classic
SP - 65
EP - 92
SN - 1226-3850
AB - This paper analyzes how the losses experienced by the bride and groom in the folktale The Bride Abandoned on the First Night are materialized when the wedding is interrupted and mourning fails to occur. First, the bride appears in the forms of the “immobilized bride” and the “transformed bride.” The “immobilized bride” is a figure fixed at the moment when the wedding was interrupted, which is the result of the wedding’s failure, the absence of a funeral, and the neglect of the community converging and solidifying materially. The “transformed bride” can be interpreted as a form in which resentment and grievance caused by the bride’s injustice transform her body and return emotions in material form. In this way, the “immobilized bride” testifies to the unacknowledged event and calls the community to responsibility, while the “transformed bride” more actively explodes her resentment and demands a response from the community.
Meanwhile, in the case of the groom, loss appears in the forms of “the externalization of inner anxiety” and “the recall of the past.” The wedding failure, engraved as threat and wound to the groom, remains as an unresolved residue and continues to affect the present as a material remnant. In the narrative, the groom receives a divination that he will soon face death or will never succeed in the state examination, which can be interpreted as a result of unacknowledged loss returning materially and permeating the present. In addition, the groom’s path through the bride’s village functions as a medium that recalls memories of the past, and the recalled memories overlap with the present space and are rearranged within the folds of time.
In this way, the bride and groom come to mourn the situation of loss and recover their social positions and severed time through the re-performance of the interrupted rite of passage. The bride who slept with the groom remains the next morning as a pile of bones, and the groom collects them and holds a funeral, which functions as an act that socially acknowledges death and at the same time completes the mourning procedure.
On the other hand, some versions reveal the impossibility of mourning. In this narrative, the groom avoids direct confrontation by setting up a scarecrow in his place. As a result, the bride ultimately fails to be recognized as the subject of the wedding, so that the loss is extinguished as a materialized form, while the groom’s loss is sealed by oblivion, showing a phase in which mourning does not come to be established.
KW - The Bride Abandoned on the First Night;Loss;Mourning;Transformation;Resentful Spirit;Sensory Residue;Material Return;Rites of Passage;Materiality;New Materialism
DO -
UR -
ER -
Han Yujin. (2025). Sensory Residue, Material Return, and the Configuration of Mourning in the Folktale The Bride Abandoned on the First Night. The Research of the Korean Classic, 71, 65-92.
Han Yujin. 2025, "Sensory Residue, Material Return, and the Configuration of Mourning in the Folktale The Bride Abandoned on the First Night", The Research of the Korean Classic, no.71, pp.65-92.
Han Yujin "Sensory Residue, Material Return, and the Configuration of Mourning in the Folktale The Bride Abandoned on the First Night" The Research of the Korean Classic 71 pp.65-92 (2025) : 65.
Han Yujin. Sensory Residue, Material Return, and the Configuration of Mourning in the Folktale The Bride Abandoned on the First Night. 2025; 71 : 65-92.
Han Yujin. "Sensory Residue, Material Return, and the Configuration of Mourning in the Folktale The Bride Abandoned on the First Night" The Research of the Korean Classic no.71(2025) : 65-92.
Han Yujin. Sensory Residue, Material Return, and the Configuration of Mourning in the Folktale The Bride Abandoned on the First Night. The Research of the Korean Classic, 71, 65-92.
Han Yujin. Sensory Residue, Material Return, and the Configuration of Mourning in the Folktale The Bride Abandoned on the First Night. The Research of the Korean Classic. 2025; 71 65-92.
Han Yujin. Sensory Residue, Material Return, and the Configuration of Mourning in the Folktale The Bride Abandoned on the First Night. 2025; 71 : 65-92.
Han Yujin. "Sensory Residue, Material Return, and the Configuration of Mourning in the Folktale The Bride Abandoned on the First Night" The Research of the Korean Classic no.71(2025) : 65-92.
