earticle

영어

Ranging from Chinese records in late Joseon Dynasty to traditional fairy tales enjoyed by many children today, the story of ‘Lady Nokjok’ has been reenacted by various narrative genres, and the reproduction of ‘Lady Nokjok’ narratives have been made both in South and North Korea after the division of Korean peninsula. The reason why Koreans could pass down the story of ‘Laday Nokjok’ over generations is the prototypical images of our nation in the story per se. Various mythical motives presented in the story are the clues connected to these images. This study took note of the fact that the story of ‘Lady Nokjok’ is a narrative document that clearly shows the changes of genre from folk tale to traditional fairy tale. As the narrative origin of what today’s children read is folk tale, awareness on the narrative essence of original folk tale could be the basis for creation and understanding of traditional fairy tale. Neglecting the intrinsic features of original narratives, it is impossible to put the concept of traditional fairy tale to the works that rely on author’s creative logic and imagination. Therefore, it is necessary to contemplate upon the aspects of dramatization in original folk tale in order to understand the meaning of traditional fairy tale properly. ‘Lady Nokjok’ narrative is exploited in this study. ‘Lady Nokjok’ narrative is a story enriched with mythical characteristics. Lady Nokjok that have deer feet is a half man and half beast that gave birth to seven to twelve sons at a time. She is a holy character that reenacts the sacredness on the basis of prolific and beastlike features. She proves herself to be the Great Mother that controls life and death by crating their son who violated a taboo and throwing them into the sea. Her deity offers a variety of mythical sources to ‘Lady Nokjok’ narratives. The result of study on the aspects of accepting ‘Lady Nokjok’ narrative shows a unique structure that shows author’s awareness on the genre of traditional fairy tale. Park Youngman’s 「12 Generals and 3,000 Soldiers」 faithfully reenacts mythical characteristics of ‘Lady Nokjok’ narratives. However, Lady Nokjok’s ‘act of throwing off sons in the sea’, which reveals her hierarchical status as a goddess is replaced by floating her sons in the sea to escape them from a danger of murder. This is a dramatic modification of original narrative on the judgment that a story of murdering one’s own sons is not appropriate for young children. Kim Sangdeok’s 「Septuplets」 aims at the narrative of fairy tale, eliminating any legendary elements of original story. Considering that ‘Lady Nokjok’ narrative has keenly communicated with the locals with the origins of relics and locations in Pyeongyang and Anju, Kim’s story that fails to suggest any legendary elements seem to lack in narrative context. Lim Seokjae’s 「12 Generals and 3,000 Soldiers」 tries to amplify mythical characters as much as possible. A part of Lim’s story that shows the reason of maternal and child separation adds mythical motives and extends the space of sacredness to fields and mountains so as to expand mythicalness. Such story is designed to primarily express essential characters of ‘Lady Nokjok’ narratives. Choi Harim’s 「Lady Nokjok and Septuplets」 considerably dilutes either mythical or fantastic features and includes realistic incidents. Therefore, it has problems in the method of creating traditional fairy tales that has folk tale as its original narrative, as the essense of ‘Lady Nokjok’ narrative is tarnished in some ways. As stated, ‘Lady Nokjok’ narratives suggest the issues of carefully considering the relevancy in the method of creation in the context of folk tale, the original narrative of the story. Further discussions are needed for the works covered in this study. The story of ‘Lady Nokjok’ has great mythical characteristics and is also a rare story of heroine. We can find the values of our old stories from the story. Therefore, further efforts shall be required to reenact ‘Lady Nokjok’ narrative in various literary genres so that this story could step up to a national narrative in a foreseeable future.