<고분지통(叩盆之痛)> 설화에 나타난 여성인물의 성적 욕망의 문제

Abstract

The folktales Gobunjitong(叩盆之痛) is about a husband testing his wife’s fidelity, revealing the dualities of the process of the female character perceiving her sexual desires and male-centeredness. In this story, the wife transforms to a person who becomes aware of her sexual desires through the test given by her husband. The wife who chooses to commit suicide after she had been caught by her husband while attempting to undermine her husband's corpse for her relationship with another man is an inevitable finale in the patriarchal order. After his wife's suicide, the husband conceals his mistake with a 'joke', and the 'sin' is entirely passed on to his wife, while the husband avoids the charges due to 'Gobunjitong (sorrow)'. However, the fact that the husband was the cause of the wife’s temptation reveals the hypocrisy of male-centeredness by showing that the husband was the fundamental cause of the death of his wife. The story Gobunjitong, varies in the perception of remarriages, the description of the male character of desire and the end of story depending on the gender of those who pass down the story. While most of the versions are clearly against remarriages, there are some versions of female narrators that are for remarriages. In addition, unlike versions of male narrators that describe women’s sexual desires as impulsive and one-directional, versions of female narrators portrays the wife's sexual desires as a result of a relationship with another man. Furthermore, while the story ends with the wife committing suicide in the versions by male narrators, in the versions by female narrators, the husband blames the wife, forgives her, and then kills her. The ending portrays the perceptions of the female speakers such as acceptance of remarriages, hope for a harmonious ending and exposing the hidden hypocrisy of the husband.