일본 고전 속의 역병과 미신, 그리고 가짜뉴스 -질병과 공동체로 본 일본 사회 서벌턴-

Abstract

In the context of a year of overwhelming turbulence—in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, this paper aims to analyze the issues of faith and superstition associated with the pandemic. Moreover, it sets to pursue the increasingly prevalent problem of spreading rumors and fake news. Specifically, I the study investigated the situation for the occurrences and spreading of rumored words associated with past epidemics in Japanese classical literature. As a result, the discovery was that they attempted to devote it to the gods and Buddha. Therefore, to control the epidemic was a struggle between their respective powers, switching back and forth from faith to superstition. Regardless of the prevailing opinions on superstitions— whether they are good or bad, it can be said that the various attempts made to eliminate the plague helped the people at that time. However, the problem is that various superstitions and rumors caused by ignorance and misunderstanding of the plague and vague fears caused more harm to other human beings. In particular, the harmful effects of fake news, which is a modern rumored word that has further accelerated both its spreading power and speed on social medial platforms, are serious. In As a matter of fact, in Japan, various hoaxes were swept away by the coronavirus wreck, which led to the exclusion and discriminatory behavior against a specific minority group including foreigners, often considered as the subalterns. Fake news is particularly problematic in directing vague fears and anger at the plague of the weakest groups in the society. In this paper, the researcher would like to provide a forum for discussions where the lessons of teachers can be learned from the fake news phenomenon that occurred with the recent coronavirus disaster.