“디아스포라” 민요와 민요의 “디아스포라”- 한국민요 ‘아리랑’과 아일랜드 민요 “대니 보이” 비교연구

Abstract

Korean “Arirang” and Irish “Danny Boy” are probably the two of the most worldly-known ballads of the respective countries or ethnic communities which they represent, namely, Korea and Ireland. Despite such ‘global’ recognition as the songs of the “genuinely Korean” and the “genuinely Irish” respectively, their existences are nonetheless not entirely of indigenous creation or ancient origins as we would often think. The present lyrics of “Danny Boy” are said to have written by a non-Irish person, Frederic Wheaterly, an English lawyer of the early 20th century; thus, it not only undermines its Irish legacy, but also prevents many inland Irish people from accepting it as an “unofficial anthem of Ireland” as the Irish-American people often insist. Similarly, some of Korea’s neighboring countries―such as China and Mongolia―protest that the “Korean” genealogy of “Arirang” should not be over-emphasized because its variants are also found in many of their regional communities. Moreover, as both ballads reflect the historical and cultural surroundings of the relatively recent periods―the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they owe much for their present popularities to their respective countries’ outland or diasporic experiences: “Arirang” was cherished by the Korean exiles who had to leave their lost country during the period of Japanese annexation, and “Danny Boy” by the Irish people who immigrated into the North American countries during the period of their homeland’s economic hardship. Thus, the reputations of the respective ballads as the “representative” songs of Korea and Ireland have not come without challenges. Nevertheless, the oversea communities of both Korean and Irish people have continued to sing “Arirang” and “Danny Boy,” starting from their diasporic insemination of the late 19th or early 20th century to the present times of the 21st century, in order to awaken their national consciousness and pay their ultimate homage to their respective homelands, thereby strengthening the respective song’s national or ethnic orientations. It seems, then, what makes “Arirang” or “Danny Boy” particularly of the “Korean” or the “Irish” spirits seems to lie in each song’s “diasporic” nature, whose essence pertains much to its deviation from―rather than to their union with―its national and/or ethnic center(s). The farther it expatriates itself from its national and/or ethnic center(s) and the more its nostalgic memories are longed for in exiled lands, the stronger its national bond with the center grows and the more widely and deeply its ethnic recognition is perceived by both domestic and international communities. Upon this paradoxical notion of “leaving to return,” then, this study comparatively examines the dialogical process of balladic diaspora that Korean “Arirang” and Irish “Danny Boy” have respectively followed―and are still following―to emerge as “the” representative songs of their respective countries and/or ethnic communities.