한국 전통놀이의 스토리텔링화와 문화콘텐츠 재생산의 가능성 - 미국계 한국아동문학 작가 린다 수 박의 작품을 통해

Abstract

Modern era has become literally the storytelling era, that varieties of storytelling have broadened their spectrum and have reproduced and consumed through different types of media. This study has investigated narrative meanings and techniques of the storytelling in regards to Korean traditional play culture in Linda Sue Park’s children's literature. Furthermore, the study attempted to diagnose possibilities of reproduction into different culture contents. First, the novel has drawn curiosity of American readers with the titles of traditional plays in Korean culture. It uses two contradicting narrative techniques like identification and differentiation. Traditional plays introduced in <Seesaw Girl> and <Kite Fighters> are very similar to the western plays like seesaw and kite flying in western culture, making the novel more approachable to those teenagers. This can be considered as one of narrative techniques that author used to strengthen identification with the majority as herself being part of minority in the United States. Same time, she reveals discrimination and differentiation of the unique ethnic culture through this cultural games. This cultural plays seem to configure the underlying context of the novel and transpose Korean dynasty’s unique values. This makes the novel to be more interesting and more culturally unique to western readers. In addition, author shows the initiation process of becoming self grown and universal emotions that children all over the world can empathize regardless of time and space by bringing these cultural plays. The immature girl in the novel has glimpsed the outside world through ’seesawing’ and ‘a game of yut’, experienced internal and external conflicts, and finally become a member of society. The boys in the novel learn sportsmanship from ‘Kite Flying’ and ‘Kicking zegi’, and become masculine yet destroy authoritarian perspective. All of the above show main characters’ growth and at the same time, enlightens the western readers of spiritual elegance in Korean cultural plays. There are many similarities between contemporary culture code with the way Linda Sue Park narrates Korean traditional play culture in the novel. Such as vivid, full color visuals and spatial depictions, humorous style writing, and functional competition are the examples of similarities. Because these are very close to modern children’s sensual emotion, this novel can act as a text which will help reproducing newer and more diverse cultural contents such as animation, movies, video games, and sports games.