Pansori is the performance art in which a Changja(narrative singer) develops a narrative alone helped by his or her Gosu(master) and embodies in 'Soripan(performance hall)' in an 'integrated' way the actions, hours in work and space of all characters....
Pansori is the performance art in which a Changja(narrative singer) develops a narrative alone helped by his or her Gosu(master) and embodies in 'Soripan(performance hall)' in an 'integrated' way the actions, hours in work and space of all characters. From the viewpoint of the art, more emphasis should be laid on a Changja's 'gesture' in the pansori performance today. However, the performance is oriented toward music(sori, singing) deteriorating theatricality.
It can be said that not so many studies on pansori have so far discussed a Changja's 'gesture', that is, nurumsae systematically and comprehensively. Thus, this thesis investigated the background where the nurumsae playing an important role in pansori performance has been formed, and studied the handing down of nurumsae and the forms of dunum according to a historical flow, the components of nurumsae, its various expressing techniques and aesthetics of communication and integration.
Nurumsae is the general acting skill which a Changja expresses by forming the whole body. The pansori of the 19th century abounded in nurumsae. The development of a Korean classical opera emphasized its more realistic and concrete expression.
The handing down of nurumsae can be explored before and after a Korean classical opera appeared. Before the opera appeared, disciples were not directly taught nurumsae by their teacher but acquired it by memorizing what they saw and learnt by themselves in their teacher's performance scene. After the opera appeared, it changed little by little. A teacher required his disciples to make accurate and realistic nurumsae and directly instructed them in nurumsae, by which it was handed down.
The components of nurumsae can be explored by dividing them into physical and material elements. All the elements that can be expressed through a Changja's body can be included as physical elements, whereas the elements related to nurumsae in the stage where pansori is performed can be included as material elements.
Nurumsae can be expressed realistically and symbolically. The motions which can be expressed by a Changja's body are realistically expressed, and any forms with symbolical meanings such as a thing and an event are variously expressed by using 'a fan' which is a Changja's unique performing instrument. And judging from the fact that pansori is scene art, nurumsae is the element of expressing impromptu and scene-contextuality strongly. Its impromptu situations also play the role of changing the atmosphere of performance that can become boring, and also induce spectators to participate in them. It involves the expressions of basic motion that have steadily been made from the past to the present. The expressions reflect its regularity, and the expressions of motion proper to a Changja, that is, his facial expressions reflect its originality. Its various expressions play the role of making pansori more vivid performance art.
A Changja integrates all characters into his body and expresses them by nurumsae. Spectators can meet the characters in the drama through it. Also, if it is well used in the right place, they come to actively participate in communication accepting the reality in the drama as theirs. The communication by it can be said to play the important role of narrowing the gap among a Changja, spectators and Gosu and constructing one unified world, in which its value is proved.
Like it, nurumsae can be confirmed to have various meaning expressions, functions and roles. I think that great weight should be placed on it and that pansorilike pansori performance requires learning and training it somewhat more steadily.
Perfecting nurumsae will become a measure for weighing the perfection of pansori performance. I expect that a study on pansori will synthetically be made not in one aspect of it but in its various aspects by those who major in it.