Abstract

A Critical Reading Baebijang-jeon as a Fantasy of Sensual Pleasure Joo, Hyung-Ye This paper is to look into the literary understanding on Baebijang-jeon which was published in Singuseorim in 1916, which has been mainly referred by Baebijang-jeon studies. Since records on Baebijang-taryeong prior to the 20th century are not the same one as a unique novel text Baebijang-jeon, published in Singuseorim. So we could question the narrative style of this version was how to be formed. Adopting several cultural analytic methods, this thesis unfolds the new possibility that this text might be created according to the foundation of the theatres in the 20th century and the publication of the novel with Pansori linkage. That narrative has much chance of being formed at the early of the 20th century judging from the facts that the space of narrative is built with the well-known unit paragraphs of Pansori and the specific narrations are highly dependent on the interpretation of Chunhyang-jeon This novel was a fantasy of men who dreamed of sensual pleasure. The fantasy of sensual pleasure which make sexual pleasure maximize through the actor's performance. Such a reading method differentiate from the reading one as a satire to a royalty of social status. As a result, Aerang who has been treated as an independent character comparing with the previous gisaeng turned out to be somewhat unbalanced character. She is identified as an allurer and her propensity to take leadership among others is fundamentally attributable to the men's inclination to pass a sense of moral guilt to the character while enjoying the work with sensual pleasure.