<양주별산대놀이>에 나타난 웃음의 구성-웃음을 통해 본 한국가면극의 정신-

Abstract

The distinct characteristics of Korean mask play can be found in the types of comic laughter. To investigate this feature I attempted to employ several approaches. The first is to understand the attitude towards life that the people playing the mask play adopted in a given laughter. It's basic premise is considering Korean mask play as a realization of people's ‘collective emotion.’ That means that Korean mask play reveals the people's response to the living condition through a specific laughter. The second approach is to understand Korean mask play in terms of multi-viewpoint. Korean mask play constructed by diverse laughter not only shows the people's various attitudes towards the world, but also looks at the people from a dual viewpoint. The third approach is to understand Korean mask play in the concrete historical context of the late Chosun Dynasty. To do this, this essay adopted Karl Mannheim's ‘documentary meaning’ so as to understand the people's thought and attitude of the late Chosun Dynasty through individual documents, and interpret individual documents in terms of what I know about the people's thought and attitude. To be academically convincing, this study referred to the Buddhism, the declining aristocratic class, and the people's aesthetic sense in the late Chosun Dynasty. Such approach is different from the previous studies that tried to connect Korean mask play to the untrustworthy ancient ritual that was fabricated by the Cambridge ritualists. This essay also differs from the existing studies that confined the discussion of Korean mask play to the generalities of satire and humor. What I want to know is the concrete features of the laughter in Korean mask play. Yangjusandae that comprehends the life from diverse perspectives is composed of various laughter. It shows, above all, the laugh of buffoon or excitement that handles the suffering life with laughter. In so doing the people playing Yangjusandae attempted to harmonize with the hostile life, or to overcome their contradictory life with joy, or to reveal their desire to live excitingly by freeing themselves from the social constraint. As such Korean mask play shows the people's wisdom that tried to live in a never-favorable world. Behind the laugh that accepts the life brightly is the laugh that recognizes the disharmonious life conditions. It was the laugh that arises from the hunger for the fundamental desires such as food and sex, and the laugh of disharmony and grotesque that was caused by the absurd society. The complaint about reality also bursts out in the laugh of violence and the ridicule of master. Here the laugh of violence implies the possibility of social change threateningly. The complaint in Yangjusandae also takes another form of laugh, developing into the duality of ridicule and humor. Consequently it shows the dual attitude that not only ridicules the target of criticism such as apostate monk and aristocrat, but also accepts them cheerfully as humorous people. In this way, satire and humor are mixed in alternation so that the hostile laugh is balanced with the friendly one. Such an attitude that embraces the hostile world brightly is reflected on the structure of laugh. The basic structure of laugh in Yanjusandae is <buffoonery → crisis → recovery>. In other words, it begins with the laugh of buffoon, developing into the laughs of crisis, and finishing the scene with the laugh of excitement. The following diagram explains this feature. buffoonerycrisisrecoveryepisode 2the laugh of buffoonthe laugh of violencethe laugh of excitementepisode 3the laugh of buffoonthe laugh of hunger → the ridicule of master → the laugh of buffoon →the laugh of violencethe laugh of excitementepisode 5-1ridicule/humorthe laugh of masterthe laugh of excitementepisode 7the laugh of buffoonthe laugh of grotesquethe laugh of excitementepisode 8the laugh of buffoonthe ridicule of master → the laugh of violence → ridicule/humor → the laugh of buffoon → the laugh of grotesque → the laugh of disharmony the laugh of excitementepisode 9the laugh of buffoonthe laugh of violence → ridicule/humorthe laugh of excitement Here the laugh of crisis questions the given social conditions critically, with the laugh of violence seeking the social change threateningly, with the laugh of hunger and disharmony exposing the incongruous life, and with the ridicule of master pasquinading the ruling class. Passing through this phase, Yangjusandae recovers the joy of life with the laugh of excitement and harmony. This basic pattern is transformed into two other modifications. The first modification is to skip the introduction of buffoonery, mainly found in the episodes that deal with the people's miserable life. crisisrecoveryepisode 5-2the laugh of hunger → the laugh of disharmony → the ridicule of masterthe laugh of excitementepisode 5-3the laugh of grotesquethe laugh of buffoonepidode 10the laugh of grotesque → the laugh of disharmony → the laugh of grotesquethe repose of souls The above episodes start with the laughs that are related to the crisis of life, and handle those crisises with the laugh of excitement and buffoon or with the repose of souls, thus progressing from crisis to recovery. The second modification shows the pattern of <buffoonery → ridicule → embracement>, as found in the episodes that deal with high priest and aristocrat. buffooneryridiculeembracementepisode 6high priestthe laugh of buffoon the ridicule of master →the laugh of excitement →the ridicule of masterridicule/humorepisode 9aristocratthe laugh of buffoon the ridicule of masterharmonious sympathy After ridiculing a high priest and an aristocrat as much as it wishes, episode 6 and 7 show the attitude embracing the target of criticism. The people ridicule the apostacy of a high monk while accepting him as a humorous old man, and ridicule the bluff of a poor aristocrat, while showing the sympathetic attitude toward his pitiable circumstance. This structure of laugh implies the generous attitude of the people who can embrace the target of criticism with smile. From the above facts, we can say that the structure of laughter in Yangjusandae is oriented towards the recovery of joy in life, the aspiration for an exciting life, and the social attitude that tries to live in harmony with the hostile world. As a result the spirit of humor is stronger than the spirit of satire in Yangjusandae. This feature is expanded to the episodes dealing with apostate monks, in which the behaviors violating the Buddhist commandments are not only ridiculed but also accepted as a joyous humor. Such a dual perspective dominates the whole of Yangjusandae. For the people playing the mask play, the hungry life not only is miserable but also can be overcome with a pleasant laugh. In that play not only the people but the apostate monks are participated. They are the same existence in that they are all hungry for sex, food, and exciting life. Those hungry men played the mask play, wearing the twisted masks of humor on a moonlit night. At the end of that play the people reflected on the laugh they enjoyed so far in terms of forlorn death. It was ‘the laugh among the forlorn life' as it turned out. The laugh of Korean mask play, in this way, looked at the people's life from various perspectives.