@article{ART003314685},
author={YOUME KIM},
title={Imagining Non-Infectious Diseases in Chosŏn Ghost Tales},
journal={The Research of the Korean Classic},
issn={1226-3850},
year={2026},
number={72},
pages={31-56}
TY - JOUR
AU - YOUME KIM
TI - Imagining Non-Infectious Diseases in Chosŏn Ghost Tales
JO - The Research of the Korean Classic
PY - 2026
VL - null
IS - 72
PB - The Research Of The Korean Classic
SP - 31
EP - 56
SN - 1226-3850
AB - 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.
KW - non-infectious disease;ghosts;epidemic disease;pre-modern Korean literature
DO -
UR -
ER -
YOUME KIM. (2026). Imagining Non-Infectious Diseases in Chosŏn Ghost Tales. The Research of the Korean Classic, 72, 31-56.
YOUME KIM. 2026, "Imagining Non-Infectious Diseases in Chosŏn Ghost Tales", The Research of the Korean Classic, no.72, pp.31-56.
YOUME KIM "Imagining Non-Infectious Diseases in Chosŏn Ghost Tales" The Research of the Korean Classic 72 pp.31-56 (2026) : 31.
YOUME KIM. Imagining Non-Infectious Diseases in Chosŏn Ghost Tales. 2026; 72 : 31-56.
YOUME KIM. "Imagining Non-Infectious Diseases in Chosŏn Ghost Tales" The Research of the Korean Classic no.72(2026) : 31-56.
YOUME KIM. Imagining Non-Infectious Diseases in Chosŏn Ghost Tales. The Research of the Korean Classic, 72, 31-56.
YOUME KIM. Imagining Non-Infectious Diseases in Chosŏn Ghost Tales. The Research of the Korean Classic. 2026; 72 31-56.
YOUME KIM. Imagining Non-Infectious Diseases in Chosŏn Ghost Tales. 2026; 72 : 31-56.
YOUME KIM. "Imagining Non-Infectious Diseases in Chosŏn Ghost Tales" The Research of the Korean Classic no.72(2026) : 31-56.
