초록 열기/닫기 버튼
Traditional folklore does not originate from the imagination alone. It originates from historical facts, and history itself is not completely invariant: it can often be tailored to serve a certain group or nation. In that sense the two are closely related to each other and it can be said that both serve to engender national identity. It is interesting to observe how invented traditions based on historical facts mirror contemporary society, and at the same time, how the majority deals with the minority in a country. To investigate how the minorities as the Other are represented in the national discourse, in this paper an attempt is made to investigate two figures from traditional folklore: Black Pete in the Netherlands, and Cheoyong in South Korea. This paper explores whether the differences between these two narratives can be explained by the discourse of national identity in the two countries. It is posited that the narratives by the majority groups strategically position themselves against the minority, by either including them in the master discourse but reifying them and placing them at a distance, denying them a full and equal part in the majority culture, or by dismissing the possibility of the minority as a part of history all together, so as to marginalize the minority’s existence and strengthen ideas of homogeneity.
