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영어

This study on Korean fairy tale Banjjoki’s meaning alteration - focused on the half body image - is oriented to analysing the meaning transition between‘ Banjjoki folk tale’and‘ Banjjoki fairy tale’. Banjjoki is a widely known folk tale all over the Korean peninsula. The brief outline of the story is like this. Once upon a time, an old couple prayed to the God to have a baby. One day, wife got three fishes from well, and ate two and half fishes. But half of the remainder was stolen by a sly cat. After this, the old wife born three babies. The first and second babies were ordinary, but the third baby’s body was half. He had only one leg, one arm, one ear and one eye, so he was called Banjjoki. Brothers were ashamed of Banjjoki so managed to kill him. They gave Banjjoki many hard circumstances, But Banjjoki overcame all the difficulties with his amazing strength. At last Banjjoki winned the bet with an wealthy man and got married beautiful girl. This study tried to analyse and illuminate the hidden meaning of the half body. The first possible metaphor of banjjoki is physical defect. The second is psycological complex related to the lack of mental capability and the third is a man’s defect which could be full through marriage. Next might be social inferiority complexes related to social position and status. As a conclusion Banjjoki has a good quality as a fairy tale which can give healing effect concern inferiority complex of children.