호환(虎患)에 기반한 체험주의적 상상력－창귀(倀鬼)’와 설화 <호식당할 팔자>를 중심으로－

Abstract

Because the tiger was a fearful creature that harmed people for a long time, people began to seek various ways to defend themselves from tiger attacks as their experience with the tiger accumulated. From birth to death, human experience consists of a path schema that follows the passage of time. Humans acquire social significance within a certain community as they go through rites of passage and are reborn as another religious entity after death through rituals, such as funerals and ancestral rites. However, unexpected deaths caused by tigers break off the social significance brought by lifetime rituals, and unlike the typical cases when the soul gravitates to the underworld, the soul was not wholly delivered and instead became entities that harm the living people. The entity that appeared as a part of this imagination of disasters caused by tigers was ‘changgwi’ (ghosts). Changgwi, which can be found in references from the Joseon dynasty, appeared as a signifier that gave substance to a supernatural phenomenon caused by tigers and was acknowledged as an entity that guides their acquaintances or relatives to tigers. The folktale <Destined to be Eaten by a Tiger> takes a fatalistic view toward disasters caused by tigers by describing that while people may attempt to prevent damage by tigers through superstition, such damages are unavoidable. This may be understood as a response to prevent the community from breaking down due to disasters caused by tigers. However, although the tiger population reached a state of near extinction, thus rendering such physical experience with tigers impossible, the public interest in tigers continued as there were repeated eyewitness accounts of tigers in Korea. Such perceptions toward tigers can be found in the <Jangsanbeom Ghost Story> which was spread in 2009. Considering the characteristics of the Jangsanbeom and the common themes found in the contributors' stories, it is likely that this story is related to the characteristics of changgwi and the superstitions found in the folktale “Destined to be Eaten by a Tiger.” Such perceptions toward unpredictable deaths and fear due to diseases have been reproduced as music content after 2020, including the songs  <Jangsanbeom> and <Changgwi>.