동아시아의 뱀신랑 유형 민담에 관한 비교고찰 -일본의「언니와 동생」유형을 중심으로-

Abstract

Previous studies on “Snake-husband” narratives, especially comparative studies between Korea, China and Japan mostly tend to be a comparative study on the types of “husband coming at night”. Hence this paper analyses Japanese forktale, older and younger sister, as compared with Gurongdongdong Sinsonbi of Korea and Snake Husband of China respectively. Since the national comparison of forktales naturally leads to discussion on the types, this paper aims to broaden the depth and perspective of the comparison by comparing the relatively unknown Japanese forktale, older and younger sister, with “Snake husband” narratives of Korea and China. Gurongdongdong Sinsonbi in the collection of Korean oral literature can be divided into four subtypes. Among them, the basic form in which the groom with the appearance of animal married a youngest daughter, then assumed the human form, and they lived happily ever after has the same structure as Mud Snail Son of Japan. On the other hand, after the ending of the basic form, the completion type of Gurongdongdong Sinsonbi has the additory story in which the sisters feeling jealous of their younger sister broke the taboo from the groom and the younger sister overcame adversities and hardships for reunion with her husband. In that regard, It shares its story frame with older and younger sister of Japan. But In details, Gurongdongdong Sinsonbi focuses on the violation of taboo and overcoming, whereas older and younger sister focuses on punitive justice. Accordingly those two forktales has differences in other elements. The snake husband is similar to older and younger sister in structure as well as detailed motif. That is, the groom who has provided aid to the parents married younger daughter, the older sister who felt jealous killed her younger sister and lived her sister’s life, afterward the younger sister was reunited with her husband through several reincarnation including a bird. There are, however, differences in the detailslike content of aid, rank of the sister who killed her younger sister between Japanese forktale and Chinese’. In this study, I compared and analysed Gurongdongdong Sinsonbi of Korea and Snake Husband with older and younger sister. From the comprehensive perspective, I could verify that Snake Husband has a deep affinity with older and younger sister in comparison with Gurongdongdong Sinsonbi because it is similar to older and younger sister in composition. However, it is noteworthy that the basic form of Gurongdongdong Sinsonbi has a similar composition with Mud Snail Son of Japan.