기생의 가창 활동을 통한 근대에의 대응

Abstract

An objective of this article is to investigate what the core identities of Gisaeng were, how those identities were related to their activities, and how they contributed to the society. It has been found that vocal performing genealogy was crucial in forming the identity of Gisaeng (기생), providing the basis on which they could compete in the public society without discrimination. The repeated formations and separations of Gisaeng organizations and the frequent transfer of the initiatives among various groups show how seriously they competed. While there were always winners, they again struggled to prevail for a long time. In this article, the competitions of Gisaeng are described by investigating how they were adapted to the modern society. Gisaengs who formed their clear identify by concentrating on Songs of Seoul Udae (우대소리), Seoul Japga (서울잡가 : 안진소리), Namdosori (남도소리), and Seodosori (서도소리) generally survived. However, it has been revealed that the survivors not only played the successor roles of old songs, music drama and dances, but also actively dealt with the creation of modern works. In 1940s, the newly perceived creative activities included the emergence of local Japga (지방잡가), Shinje-japgagok (신제잡가), Gageuk (가극), and ShinMinyo (신민요). While their creative attempts occasionally accepted by the society, they also received severe critics. Another objective of this article is to examine how the vocal performance genealogy of Gisaeng affected their confrontation against the modern powers representing modernization. Gisaengs without excellent performance skills occasionally succumbed to the powers. Their primary opponent was Japanese power. While they collided directly with Japanese power many times, they often made use of the power under modernization. On the basis of The latter they could challenge some powers of pre-modern era, cultural hegemony by employing the modernization. This article elucidates the identities of Gisaeng were formed through their challenges in the modernization process, not by the coercive forces of the powers.