구비 서사문학에 나타난 ‘빨래’ 모티프 비교 연구

A Folk ballad work <Jinju Nanggun> and shaman epic <Princess Bari> share the same motif in common, which is the ‘doing laundry’ motif. But the process is in reverse. In <Jinju Nanggun> the daughter-in-law washes the white laundry white and black laundry black. In <Princess Bari>, however, Bari, the 7th daughter, meets old woman who asks Bari to wash the white laundry black and the black white. I reviewed the meaning of the same but contrary action.
In <Jinju Nanggun> the description of doing laundry implies the law of identity. It seems that she insists that the same thing should remain same. She is afraid of the change. And when she returns to her home, she find the reversed situation of ordinary life; Gisaeng, Korean geisha, occupied the main room. She retreated and commit a suicide with 9-colored strings.
In the shaman epic <Princess Bari> in East Coast Line, the ‘doing laundry’ motif seems to be a symbolic ritual of Bari’s ‘rite of passage’ as a shaman. the motif of washing white clothes black and reverse shows us the capacity of Bari who embraces the quick and the dead.
The Tale of <Gurŏngdŏngdŏng Sinsŏnbi(Snake Husband)> also has the same laundry motif. It is a story of a woman who get her feminity only through sore trials. It tells us the suppression and runtiness of the feminine life.
The end of the story of <Jinju Nanggun> crosses the will of the daughter-in-law. Her wish is to be in the world of the law of identity, but the world cannot keep the law purely from the changes. In <Princess Bari> and <Gurŏngdŏngdŏng Sinsŏnbi> present the other ends. While ‘washing white clothes black’ is a kind of incongruity and contradiction, when the heroes accept it they get what they want.
Life is not stable. The world will change. What is white today can be black tomorrow. Man is not sorely good or bad. As Bari and the Wife of <Gurŏngdŏngdŏng Sinsŏnbi> recognize the contradiction of life, they can solve the problems of their lives. We also learn it from these oral traditional stories.