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The Historical Function of the Trickster: A Study of the Clever Servant Tale

  • Journal of Korean Literature
  • 2014, (30), pp.89-112
  • Publisher : The Society Of Korean Literature
  • Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature
  • Published : November 30, 2014

Charles La Shure 1

1서울대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper examined the historical function of the trickster figure and the tales in which he appears. In particular, it attempted to provide an answer to the question of why seemingly negative tales were continuously handed down when they ran afoul of the ethical and moral value systems supported by the social order. It was in part a reaction to Jonathan Gotschall’s claim in The Storytelling Animal that narrative plays a morally supportive role, and in part an attempt to come to a deeper understanding of the trickster tale. I first discussed scholarly opinions in the West on the trickster’s dual or ambiguous nature and then introduced the concept of liminality as the trickster’s defining feature. This was followed by an examination of the trickster’s practicality, an examination that dealt with the question of what sort of evolutionary practicality could trickster tales have if they did not reinforce moral values and thereby also reinforce the social order. Native American tricksters and the Scandinavian trickster deity Loki were offered as examples, but the main focus of the discussion was the Korean tale of the clever servant who deceived his master. This tale can be seen as one that deals with class conflict, but there are other victim’s of the servant’s wiles besides the master: lower-class characters such as a common woman and a passerby down on his luck. This shows that the trickster here is not a lower-class hero who defies his upper-class master, but a liminal figure who seeks to bring down the entire social structure. This desire is an expression of the understanding that it is only possible to create a new world once the old world has been torn down. Finally, I also examined in brief some recorded tales and a novel that deal with the same themes and characters, showing how the trickster may be imagined differently depending on the author’s social values. Ultimately, the strong opposition to the social structure seen in tricksters in oral tales like that of the clever servant is a result of the historical function they play as pathfinders to the creation of a new world.

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