구비설화에 나타난 돌봄정서의 아버지

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to discover the aspects of fathers with a care sentiment inherent in oral folk tales. From the ages of myths to the modern times, the roles of a father have varied according to social and cultural changes. Young fathers undergoing a process of becoming a father without learning about the status and roles of a father from their real fathers have no other choices but to get lessons about what not to do from their real fathers. The “absence of father” is an important topic in literature research as well as psychoanalysis, being regarded as one of the cultural phenomena in the modern society. Oral literature is filled with stories in which the sense of authority and the consciousness of family held by fathers are prominent and transmissions in which discriminating perceptions against women are deep-rooted in that it is a product of the patriarchal feudal age. In this sense, an inquiry into the stories of fathers with the caring sentiment in oral folktales will help to change the perceptions of father’s absence in the modern society and discover the modern transmission value of oral folktales. This study focuses on fathers embodying the caring ethics in oral folktales because of attention to the roles of fathers in the family unit as a plan of practicing caring to escape from the intention of reducing family into the basic caring unit and passing caring duties in the family onto women under the neo-liberal economic system. In caring ethics, all human being experience dependence and are considered as vulnerable dependents. Caring is a moral duty and considers sympathy, sensitivity, and responsiveness as meaningful emotions. Unlike the old definition of fathers in family as economic supporters and care providers, fathers are also the object of caring. The study intends to discover the caring sentiment in fathers and transmit it. The study identified tales of “father-daughter” relations with a focus on “father-child” relations in the aspect of the caring sentiment and the practice of caring. The blood-based patriarchal thinking dominates the “father-son” narratives. In “father-daughter” narratives, the characteristics of the caring sentiment including compassion, taking care of, and expression of desire in three materials including “finding the father,” “saving the father with wisdom” and “protesting.” Stories of “fathers” whose relations with their children are not revealed transmit the ambivalent images between ideal fathers and fathers with sexual desire, thus inducing reflective thinking needed for fathers’ self-care. The discovery of fathers that have the caring sentiment and practice caring in oral folktales will contribute to the formation of father’s identity in the modern society.