• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.282-289
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• 2016

A term that has been used since ancient times, 'trickster' means 'a person who performs general tricks'. In other words, a trickster is a person who exhibits his or her intrinsic characteristics by using tricks, or who has a special ability to make any situation work well only for him or herself. This thesis looks for basic concepts and features of tricksters in research undertaken into tricksters to date. It also aims to uncover the trickster side of Maltugi in Talchum (a traditional mask dance). A trickster is a person who tricks, but the characteristic itself is unclear and abnormal. A trickster also has borderline, duplicitous or multi-value characteristics, so it is impossible to merely define him or her as 'a person who tricks'. When dealing with a trickster's characteristics, the 'Liminality' element is very important, because he or she is a person who exists in all the borderlines of space, time, society, and language, and assaults the social order via deceit, play, and the fulfillment of greed. Maltugi in Talchum is a man of humble birth, but he is a character who attacks the Yangban (aristocrats) without hesitation. He is a kind of representative of the people who speaks for the commoners' feelings. At a time of the Three Policies' Disorder and frequent external aggressions, the commoners felt a sense of helplessness against the Yangban, who they viewed as immoral. Maltugi laughs at and depreciates the Yangban through the use of puns, and shows a faithful attitude to the present without being afraid of the result caused by his activity. This implies that he has the characteristics of a trickster.