韓⋅中⋅日 고전문학 속에 보이는 여성의 영혼과 치유(治癒)* = Women’s Souls and Healing in Classical Korean, Chinese, and Japanese Literature

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper examines how the spirits of deceased female characters from classical East Asian literature deliver stories about their scars and how they enact a narrative of healing. For this purpose, this paper classifies the concept of a female spirit narrative of healing into four types: a consolatory narrative, a conciliatory narrative, a compensatory narrative, and a conclusive narrative. First, a consolatory narrative, which involves assuaging one’s loneliness through symbolic unification, and a conciliatory narrative revolving around the substitution of one’s sorrows with tranquility through understanding and forgiveness appear as the two ‘passive’ examples of healing narratives. Then, a compensatory narrative involving restoration of her reputation and identity through the law and rituals that let her grievances receive acknowledgement, and a conclusive narrative about completion of her incomplete self and relationships through reincarnation and return to life, are presented as the two ‘active’ narratives. In such narratives, these female spirits are no longer victims deprived of their voices; they are vocal agents restoring their identities and the communities they belong to. As stated, a female spirit narrative in classical East Asian literature is a narrative device that encourages a female individual to surmount the hurdles of patriarchy, which regard her sacrifice as given, and recover her lost self and the vitality of her community.