조선후기 야담에 나타나는 노구의 특징과 의미

Abstract

Nogu(老嫗, an old lady) was in charge of the love affairs related to priests, royal assistants and royal families in the ancient times, changing into a vulgar woman aggravating illicit love between sons from a good family and middle-class married women in the medieval society. She, on the other hand, was considered a sacred woman with an image of goddess or Weolhanoin(月下老人). In other words, Nogu had a combined character with the divine and the worldly. This research shows Nogu’ social status, occupations, specific activities and her significance associated with immoral women described in the entertainments and narratives based on the Yadam in the late Joseon Dynasty. Nogu is largely classified into three characters in the romantic folktales. First, she was a mysterious and dreadful ghost doing people harms. However, it is noticed that she was not a common ghost but a negatively transformed figure from the ancient creating goddess who had taken control over a giant, forcing power, a loom and housing. Secondly, she has an image of a hidden able person to help main characters. Considering this image viewed in folktales including Yeoyongsa and a celebrated doctor, Yusang, Nogu was seemingly helping main characters in danger and trouble, finally turning into a role of helping a nation or a king. Lastly, she was an old woman who engaged in humble jobs containing Kisaeng and drinks. Nogu’s jobs are referred to as Kisaeng’s mother, Sadang, a barkeeper, a vendor selling remedies, a keeper of a brothel, and so on. But, given that Damo or a doctor assistant played combined roles of Kisaeng, those jobs account for one category of putting all of Kisaeng, a doctor assistant, Damo and Sadang together. These aspects of Nogu have had great influence on a view of women in the late Joseon literature. First of all, Nogu became a role model shaping the images of Halmi and Kkokdugaksi in mask play in the entertainments. There are some grounds in that a goddess of season and Mother goddess are the prototypes of Halmi and Halmi’s jobs are similar to those of Nogu. Nogu, namely, grew a detailed model to express a divine being as a human being. Nogu has had an impact on displaying the women who would escape from Confucian tradition, such as Ppaengdeukeumi of Simcheongga, Koiddongeumi of Bokseonhwaeumga, Mrs. Lee of Kkokdugaksijeon and Ongnyeo of Byeonkangsoiga in the narratives. The desires of materials, appetite, sex and sleep which immoral women indulged in were regarded as rejected in those days, which has provoked nostalgia for unrestrained human nature and instinctive chaos. Likewise, the looks of Nogu, who had the closest relations with these women, seem to have had an effect on the image of woman with intensified human nature widely represented in the late Joseon literature.