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The Features of Popularity in 「Dongsanggi」

Kim, Hyang-nam 1

1조선대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

「Dongsanggi(東廂記)」is a play about the forced marriage by the king or emperor and tells about a special wedding story organized by a state for old bachelors and old maids. This story that aroused the public’s interest was recorded by the royal orders and Lee Ok(1760~1815) created a play, a totally new genre, based on the story. Although 「Dongsanggi」 is written in classical Chinese, it greatly accepts people’s slang, proverb, curse, and song for fun and interest based on the fact of wedding, reflects the manners of the times, and is adhered closely to public emotion. In this sense, it is necessary to review in association with ‘popularity’. If popularity means enjoying easily and widely among people, 「Dongsanggi」 may be discussed in three features. First is the popularity of the main character. The main characters of classical narratives are mostly heros or heroins with strong ideology or stereotype. However, it was greatly changed in the late of the Joseon Dynasty. With several characters including women and the middle and lower classes received, the prospect of writing was expanded and materialized. Characters in 「Dongsanggi」 are the common people including Kim, Huijip, the head of a village, a deputy, a village young man, and a young servant. In order words, they are all common and ordinary people. The world in 「Dongsanggi」 is the common people’s space where most people live and the world of reality telling by their natural voices. The reality obtained by it increases interest and rouses new fun, resulting in strong popularity. Second is the popularity of using materials. One flow of literature in the late of the Joseon Dynasty was to get rid of the area of classics which expresses the world view of Confucianism. It avoided theoretical, scientific, and ideological things and preferred popular materials found in the actual feeling of life. The main material of 「Dongsanggi」 is main character’s wedding and a town scene. The main character who cannot marry because of poverty solemnizes a blessed marriage, goods which brighten the wedding are listed in detail, and the ritual of groom-hazing is unfolded. A popularity-oriented intention to share and communicate with many people is hold in this ordinary and non-ordinary story(material). The final is the popularity of language expression. A play is characterized by developing accidents through lines. In order words, it should strengthen the operation of language that the audience can easily understand and communicate, that is, the popularity of expression. The lines of a play should be directly delivered to and understood by the audience and performed by actors. Unlike a novel, the lines should be concise and interesting and the ways to express should use usual speaking. Although 「Dongsanggi」 is created for reading and not for performance, it commands vernacular Chinese that writes ordinary spoken language in letters. It also commands a totally new style which completely destroys the formality of classics in choosing grammar or vocabulary such as borrowed characters of Korean onomatopoeia or interjection and writing proverbs or common phrases using Chinese characters. A command of such ordinary and common language may result in the opening of the way of popularity. 「Dongsanggi」 is exceptional in both an external form of a play and an internal form of character, material, and expression. The exception is the fruit of efforts that try to truly do literature of ‘now-here’ and not transcendental literature. It is the feature of ‘popularity’ that tries to approach more people by closely and deeply adhering to people’s life and what 「Dongsanggi」 pursues.

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