죽음 재현 서사에 내재한 향유층의 죽음 인식과 그 의미 = The Audience’s Perception of Death Embedded in Death-Representation Narratives and Its Implications

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study examines “death-representation narratives”—stories in which death is reenacted through the return of the dead, unresolved violence, or supernatural manifestations—across traditional Korean tales and classical novels to contemporary films and television dramas. Unlike previous research that primarily focuses on the vengeful spirit (wŏngwi) itself, this study highlights the perspectives of the audience and the sociocultural perceptions of death embedded in these narratives. By analyzing Kim Inhyang-jeon, Janghwa Hongnyeon-jeon, Jeong Eul-seon-jeon, and the Arang tale, alongside modern works such as Whispering Corridors (1998), Arang (2006), A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), and the TV drama Revenant (2023), this paper identifies the evolving modes of death representation.
Death-representation narratives consistently reveal themes of unjust death, hidden violence, and suspended mourning, thereby destabilizing the boundary between collective memory and forgetting. The persistent return of the dead reflects Freud’s concept of the death drive and Lacan’s repetition automatism, illuminating how individual and societal traumas are symbolically re-enacted. While classical narratives typically restore order through proper burial and ritual closure, modern narratives frequently employ open endings, foregrounding the impossibility of complete mourning and raising ethical questions about which deaths are remembered or forgotten.
This study argues that death-representation narratives function not merely as horror stories but as cultural texts that interrogate mourning practices, memory politics, and social ethics in Korean society. By tracing their continuity and transformation from the premodern to the contemporary era, the paper demonstrates how these narratives shape and reflect Korea’s cultural sensibilities surrounding death and its remembrance.