제주민요의 문화사적 가치

Abstract

Jeju folk songs are the products of the nature, history and society of Jeju Island, and the song lyrics represent the zeitgeist as well as the islanders' perspectives on life at the time when the songs were made and sung. Reaching into modern times, small-scale farming using the labor of family members has been transformed into large-scale mechanized farming using agri-chemicals. As the chance to sing songs relating to work or rituals has disappeared, Jeju folk songs have been in a process of becoming extinct, which makes it hard to transmit them to future generations. Jeju folk songs were designated as provincial intangible cultural assets alongside Korean intangible cultural assets as part of an effort to preserve and transmit them. Currently, persuasive research is required on the value of the songs as cultural history in order to establish policy-level indicators on why Jeju folk songs have to be preserved. This thesis lays the groundwork for the value of Jeju folk songs as cultural history by identifying the research results and trends so far. This thesis is organized as follows: -Jeju folk songs represent the essence of practical literature of Jeju Island's women communities, embracing indigenous thought about communicating with people, nature, deities, and animals. -Through oral transmission, the songs have been diversely transformed in literature and music, and they have been differentiated through time and space. -The effective value of the songs are recognized for overcoming physical and mental hardship, and the function of the songs focuses on labor. -Jeju folk songs also express an individual's lyrical self based on collective sentiments. In particular, pessimistic sentiments are specifically shown, intensifying the meaning in a paradoxical way. -Discussion on the value of Jeju folk songs as cultural history is supplemented in a comparative study with the folk songs from the Korean mainland and the island regions of other countries.