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An epic and dramatic prescription for the anxiety of disease

  • Journal of Korean Literature
  • 2021, (43), pp.7-35
  • DOI : 10.52723/JKL.43.007
  • Publisher : The Society Of Korean Literature
  • Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature
  • Received : March 31, 2021
  • Accepted : May 10, 2021
  • Published : May 31, 2021

Cho, Hyunsoul 1

1서울대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Unidentified diseases create collective anxiety in the name of mysterious disease. To get out of this, every society devised a way. Sonnymgut was a ceremonial prescription to counter smallpox. Two prescriptions, epic and dramatic, are presented in this ritual. The myth of Sonnymgut recognizes the disease who crossed the Yalu River as Sonnym that is a guest god. First, Moonsin, Hoban and Gakshi, these three gods are Sonnym. This is the form in which the goddess Gakshi integrates the confrontation between the two male gods. However, in reality, the confrontation is between the hospitality and hostility of the receptionists who treat Gakshi. The boatman of the Yalu River and the rich man Kim were hostile, while the Nogohalmi was welcoming. The determinant of the Sonnym' fortune and misfortune is their attitude. If you do your best for the Sonnym, you can avoid smallpox. Sonnym is also transformed into four gods in the East Sea Coast Gut. This is not a shaman's mistake or a conventional transformation, but a result of strategic choice. The fourth Sonnym, Sejon was the god of housekeeping and ancestor of Sejongut, which was performed prior to the Sonnymgut. Sejonsonnym is a god Sejon who was sent to Sonnymgut. The structure of the four Sonnym is a result of the transformation of the three Sonnym' structure, which is the result of the transmission of Gaksi’ mediating status. Sejonsonnym, a housekeeping god and a Sonnym god, plays a mediating role in the confrontation between the outside guest gods and the inside housekeeping gods. These mythical prescriptions are represented in a dramatic form in Gutnori, which is performed to the after-party of Sonnymgut. The youngest child Makdungee, who leads the play, is the third-generation only son of rich man Kim, who treated the Sonnym poorly. By placing a child who died of smallpox as a horseman serving Sonnym gods, the Shaman comforted the deceased and the host who lost the child. Also, the youngest child Makdungee was given the status of a mediator like Sejonsonnym. In the present Gut where smallpox disappeared, the Makdungee is a comic role to earn the money, but in the past, the Makdungee performed a role to soothe Sonnym gods.

Citation status

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