『於于野談』 소재 鬼神譚의 트라우마(trauma)적 성격

Abstract

There are lots of Gwishin(Korean ghost) narratives in Ou yadam, a book written in 1623 by Yu Mongin. Those narratives were ones collected by Yu from his neighborhood, friends, servants and some also stem from his own experiences. New characteristics in the narratives can be arranged into two. One is traumatic narrative and the other is human and ghost's affection narrative. This essay focused on the first. Compared with the previous Gwishin narratives, characteristics are newly found. The identity of the Gwishin is not clear. The origin, gender, its shape is indeterminate. And opposed to previous works, the Gwishin has no particular reason for manifesting itself. The relationship between the human being and the Gwishin is unfamiliar, that is, they have not known each other before. Therefore they have no reason to meet. But the encounter is not avoidable. In previous Gwishin narratives, the identity of the Gwishin is known. The Gwishin is known to have been a certain human being, dead acquaintance or buddhistic/ shamanistic spirit etc. The gender of the ghost is recognizable and its form is a human one. And there are particular reasons for the ghost's manifestation, like solving unresolved business left on Earth that the Gwishin could not manage without asking a human being's assistance. In Gwishin stories previous to Ou yadam, the human and the Gwishin were previously acquainted. According to psychoanalytic theory, the combination of an external incident and internal impulse causes a psychic trauma which makes anxiety. Yu suffered from psychic trauma during the Imjin War, since his elder brother was killed by a Japanese soldier. He mourned for the loss of his brother and thought about destiny, embodied by the Sky, Cheon(天). Yu realized that the Heaven's will is unjust. Under this condition, his psychic trauma caused Yu to lose his mental equilibrium. Years long war caused broad societal trauma in Chosun. It lost equilibrium on a national scale. Its literary production is a reflection of this atmosphere. Contemporaneous records on war-time suffering appeared in several Mongyurok, e.g. Dream-Journeys, Solider's diaries. In the former, Gwishin voiced their grievance and agonies themselves. The suffering displayed in Mongyurok is due to the physical hardships of war, not latent trauma. Even though we modern people take it granted for anxiety after meeting ghost, the previous literary history scarcely shows anxiety in Gwishin narratives. Protagonist loses mental equilibrium after realizing a fact of the existence of unknown world and the consequent emotion is an anxiety. In Ou yadam, without the destructive behavior by Gwishin, just a realization of the existence of being unfamiliar, and impossibility of understanding, incapability of handling of the situation increased anxiety compared with the previous's. Anxiety erupts only when the person senses a threat or a danger from the object. If no physical threat or danger caused anxiety, the anxiety is traumatic one caused by previous trauma which is not resolved. But in the narratives, the protagonist did not have previous encounter. Then, logically the trauma of the protagonist can not be the protagonist's but outside perspective's of the society. The outside perspective's of the society is survivors's. They sees the deaths in the eye of the dead and moved their trauma into Gwishin. So the characteristics of Gwishin can be said as the characteristics of the trauma of the survivors. And the characteristics is not simple but complicated. Most types of traumatic narrative are Resolving type, Reminding type, Destructive type. In the Reminding type, the encounter does not mean successful communication. The protagonist can not understand what the Gwishin desires. And Gwishin has no language to emit its desire. The protagonist's desire is to know Gwishin's desire but has no clue. Besides, the characteristic of the Gwishin, e.g., identity, shape and gender is obscure. So the protagonist's desire becomes a lack of him. In the case of Gwishin, the encounter gave any resolution, it repeats appearing but it has no language to send its desire to humanbeing. It mean it can not overcome the trauma yet. The plot of the Reminding type is exposure, which effectively reveals Gwishin's existence. On the other hand, in the resolving type, the Gwishin has its language to show its desire. The protagonist and Gwishin get along and communicate well. So, The Gwishin resolves its old desire which was a lack. In the destructive type, ceaselessly Gwishin tried to destruct a man's sound status, though it has not been successful.