earticle

영어

In Confucian society, filial piety is largely classified into two categories; one is supporting one's parents during their lifetime, and the other is performing funeral service and ancestor memorial rites after their death. This paper researched what would be the future of oral transmission depending on the change of bearers' viewpoints and philosophy, especially about the 'folktales related to ancestor memorial rites'. This study had been proceeded as follows. I had some students, being at college or graduate school, appreciate the 'folktales related to ancestor memorial rites' and make descriptions of their impressions. And then, I compared their various impressions and interpretations found in the descriptions with the storytellers' messages in the folktale versions they narrated orally. As the result, I found there is a great difference between two. The students, that is, the new generation do not agree with the sense of values Confucian ideology, that the story tellers emphasize in their folktale versions. For example, the students all pointed out serious problems and absurdity of the facts issued from male-oriented lineage succession and the notion of preferring a son to a daughter. Briefly speaking, the future of oral transmission of the 'folktales related to ancestor memorial rites' is not good. Because it seems that the most bearers, who should hand over Korean folktales in the future, would not willingly transmit 'the folktales related to ancestor memorial rites'.