• Title/Summary/Keyword: the journey to the world of the dead

Search Result 2, Processing Time 0.015 seconds

The Characteristics of Seoul Ginoguigut in Ritual Form (서울 진오기굿의 의례적 특징)

  • Yi, Yongbhum
    • (The) Research of the performance art and culture
    • /
    • no.22
    • /
    • pp.63-92
    • /
    • 2011
  • This paper intends to clarify the characteristics of Seoul Ginoguigut in ritual form. This paper points out three characteristics; materialization of the journey to the world of the dead, direct communications with the dead, inclusive blessings for the dead and the living. Firstly, the journey to the world of the dead is materialized through various ritual processes of Seoul Ginoguigut. This characteristic is prominent in the context of comparisons with the death rituals of Confucianism and Buddhism, and of shamanism in other regions of Korea. Secondly, in Seoul Ginoguigut the communications of the dead and the living are made through direct dialogues between them through shaman's possession. The communications by direct dialogues between the dead and the living make it easy to accept death as a real fact, and have an effect of recognizing the individuality and uniqueness of each death. Thirdly, the blessings of Seoul Ginoguigut are so inclusive that they cover the dead's safe journey toward the world of the dead as well as the happiness of the living. This characteristic is related to the understanding of death of Korean shamanism that does not separate death and living. These three characteristics are perceived in the context of comparisons with the death rituals of Confucianism and Buddhism, and of Seoul Ginoguigut. And they give a clue to understand how the death rituals of Korean shamanism have persisted in Korean society.

The multi-level understanding of Shamanistic myth Princess Bari as a narrative: focusing on levels of story, composition, and communication (무속신화 <바리공주> 서사의 다층적 이해 - 이야기·생성·소통의 세 층위를 대상으로)

  • Oh, Sejeong
    • 기호학연구
    • /
    • no.54
    • /
    • pp.119-145
    • /
    • 2018
  • This paper attempts to divide the narrative into three levels and review the approach methodology to understand Princess Bari as a narrative. If the stratification of the narrative, the analysis of each levels, and the integrated approach to them are made, this can contribute to suggesting new directions and ways to understand and study Princess Bari. The story level of Princess Bari, the surface structure, is shaped by the space movement and the chronological sequential structure of the life task that started from the birth of the main character. This story shows how a woman who was denied her existence by her father as soon as she was born finds an ontological transformation and identities through a process. Especially, the journey of finding identity is mainly formed through the events that occur through the relationship with family members. This structure, which can be found in the narrative level, forms a deep structure with the oppositional paradigm of family members' conflict and reconciliation, life and death. The thought structure revealed in this story is the problem of life is the problem of family composition, and the problem of death is also the same. In response to how to look at the unified world of coexistence of life and death, this tradition group of myths makes a relationship with man and God. This story is mainly communicated in the Korean shamanistic ritual(Gut) that sent the dead to the afterlife. Although the shaman is the sender and the participants in the ritual are the receivers, the story is well known a message that does not have new information repeated in certain situations. In gut, the patrons and participants do not simply accept the narrative as a message, but accept themselves as codes for reconstructing their lives and behavior through autocommunication. By accepting the characters and events of as a homeomorphism relationship with their lives, people accept the everyday life as an integrated view of life and death, disjunction and communication, conflict and reconciliation, and the present viewpoint. It can not change the real world, but it changes the attitude of 'I' about life. And it is a change and transformation that can be achieved through personal communication like the transformation of Princess Bari into god in myth. Thus, Princess Bari shows that each meaning and function in the story level, composition level, and communication level is related to each other. In addition, the structure revealed by this narrative on three levels is also effective in revealing the collective consciousness and cultural system of the transmission group.