<변강쇠가>에 나타난 강쇠 형상과 그에 대한 적대의 의미

Abstract

We might peek into the grotesqueness beyond the customs or normal senses in the life from the traditional Korean folklore song <Byeonkangsoiga>, which is thought to have been built over multiple strata inside the social reality at the time. This article have studied the appearance of Kang-soi as a socially hostile actor exposed in such grotesqueness by means of articulating the characteristics of the work. Kang-soi is not only a man of disturbance in the symbolic order but also a banner of strangeness with no meaning. These remind people of fear against ‘the unknown’. The excessive hatred beyond the punishment for taboos he violated is projected to Kang-soi. We might say that the condensed expressions to Kang-soi instead of the social realities, where ‘the hostility’ on the basis of psychological reality is problematic, are the signals to reveal crises in the social order and hatreds transferred to the hostile party in the imagination at the same time in order to cover up such conflicts. The specific details of such hatreds are; first, diseases to disturb any normal and calm death, i.e. fear of epidemics represented by mystery diseases; second, the exclusive attitude against the weak in the society represented by both wanderers and forlorn spirits. We might say that epidemics are a banner to represent the poor living environments in the late Chosun Dynasty, especially in the 19th century, and the image of wanderers is linked with that of epidemics. In addition, although people in the lower strata, especially wanderers among them, are having the most damage in such poor environments, they are recognized as the existence disturbing and intruding into the communities. Besides, the song <Byeonkangsoiga> is packing them into the existence having the carnal desire to the contrary as they have to be ‘excluded’ from the society. The grotesqueness of <Byeonkangsoiga> that they had ‘never seen or heard’ might have been totally different way of expressions on such cracks of ideology in the society. The cracks in the social order are attributed to various problems in the society in the late Chosun Dynasty. It is required for Kang-soi to condense such hostilities in order to cover up the aspects of social cracks that has already started. However, the behaviors of Kang-soi drifted away from the symbolic, his grotesque death and unsolved spirit of sorrow show it to the contrary that the solution to suture such cracking aspects was not easy. Kang-soi was embracing all the hostilities to the problematic realities of society together with a role of a protagonist in an evil incident while representing the dead with no settlement. Such memories for the epidemic and corpse might be collective memories leaving out large scars to the communities in the Chosun society in 19th century, and <Byeonkangsoiga> can be said to include such memories in terms of ‘hostile’ aspects.