• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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• no.36
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• pp.441-471
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• 2018

East Coast Gut, Korean shamanism ritual on its east coastal area, is a Gut held in fishing villages alongside Korean east coastal area from Goseong area in Gangwon-Do to Busan area. East Coast Gut is performed in a series mainly by a successor shaman, Korean shaman, who hasn't received any spiritual power from a God, and the implications of this thesis lie in that we look over the learning aspects of Seokchool Kim shaman group among other East Coast Gut successor shaman groups after dividing it into 2 categories, successor shaman and learner shaman and based upon this, we reveal the meaning of the learning aspects of East Coast Gut. For successor shamans, home means the field of education. Since they are little, they chased Gut events performing dance in a series to accumulate onsite experiences. However, in the families of successor shamans that have passed their shaman work down from generation to generation, their descendents didn't inherit shaman work any longer, which changed the way of succession and learning of shaman work. Since 1980's, Gut has been officially acknowledged as a kind of general art embracing songs, dance and music and designated as a cultural asset of the state and each city and province, and at art universities, it was adopted as a required course for its related major, which caused new learner shamans who majored in shamanism to emerge. These learner shamans are taking systematical succession lessons on the performance skills of East Coast Byeolshin Gut at universities, East Coast Byeolshin Gut preservation community, any places where Guts are held and etc.. As changes along time, the successor shamans accepted the learner shamans to pass shaman work down and changes appeared in the notion of towners who accept the performer groups of Gut and Gut itself. Unlike the past, as Gut has been acknowledged as the origin of Korean traditional arts and as the product of compresensive learning on songs, dance and music and it was designated as a national intangible cultural asset, shaman's social status and personal pride and dignity has become very high. As shaman has become positioned as the traditional artist getting both national and international recognition unlike its past image of getting despised, at the site of Gut event or even in the relation with towners, their status and the treatment they get became far different. Even towners, along with shift in shaman groups' generation, take position to acknowledge and accept the addition of new learning elements unlike the past. Even in every town, rather than just insisting on the type or the event purpose of traditional Gut, they think over on the type of festival and the main direction of a variety of Guts with which all of towners can mingle with each other. They are trying to find new meanings in the trend of changing Gut and the adaptation of new generation to this. In our reality of Gut events getting minimalized along with rapid change of times, East Coast Gut is still very actively performed in a series until now compared to Guts in other regions. This is because following the successor shamans who have struggled to preserve the East Coast Gut, the learner shamans are actively inflowing and the series performance groups preserve the origin of Gut and try hard to use Gut as art contents. Besides, the learner shamans systematically organize what they learned on shamanism from the successor shamans and get prepared and try to hand it down to descendents in the closest possible way to preserve its origin. In the future, East Coast Gut will be succeeded by the learner shamans from the last successor shamans to inherit its tradition and develop it to adapt to the times.

• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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• no.22
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• pp.287-325
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• 2011

This paper studies the time-space and appreciation of the performance culture of Gwanseo region, which is considered to have formed a characteristic culture in late Joseon period. For this purpose, 4 gasa written in hangeul (Korean alphabet), as well as 4 yeonhaeng gasa, 108 articles of Gwanseoakbu were examined. Plus, among the 9 types of yeonhaengrok (Documents of Performance culture) written in Chinese character, those parts which describe the performance traits have been analyzed. Then, 'main list of terminology' has been deduced based on the categorization according to the following points : 1) subjects of performance and appreciation 2) time and period of performance 3) space of performance 4) contents of performance 5) background and motive for performance and 6) method of performance. Through this process, various 'nouns' and 'predicate verbs' in relation to performance culture emerged, which were systemized according to types of performance elements and categories. Major terminology includes predicate verbs and symbolic verbs such as nokuihongsang,' 'baekdaehongjang,' 'jeolsaekgeumga,' 'cheonga,' 'hwaryu,' 'gamuja,' and 'tongsoja,' as well as the terms already known such as gisaeng, iwon, yangbang, akgong, and jeonak, which refer to musicians and dancers. Subjects of performance were divided into performers and listeners, categorized into concert, music, and dance, according to performance form. In the case for music, it was divided into instrumental or vocal, solo or accompanied (byeongju, self-accompaniment). In the case for vocal music, noteworthy was the inclusion of profesional artist's singing (called gwangdae or uchang). The record of 23 names of popular artists from Gwanseo region, with mention of special talents for each person, reflects the degree of activeness and artistic level of the province. Depending on the appreciating patrons, the audience were indicated as the terms including 'yugaek (party guest),' jwasang,' 'on jwaseok,' and 'sonnim (guests).' It seems that appraisal for a certain performance was very much affected by the tastes, views, and disposition of the appreciating patrons. Therefore it is interesting to observe different comparative reviews of concerts of different regions given by literary figures, offering various criticism on identical performance. In terms of performance space, it has been divided into natural or architectural space, doing justice to special performance sites such as a famous pavilion or an on-the-boat performance. Specific terms related to the scale and brightness of stage, as well as stage props and cast, based on descriptions of performance space were found. The performance space, including famous pavilions; Yeongwangjeong, Bubyeokru, Baeksangru, Wolparu, and Uigeomjeong, which are all well-known tourist sites of Gwanseo province, have been often visited by viceroys. governors, and envoys during a tour or trip. This, and the fact that full-scale performances were regularly held here, and that more than 15 different kinds of boats which were used for boat concert are mentioned, all confirm the general popularity of boat concerts at the time. Performance time, categorized by season or time of day (am/pm/night) and analyzed in terms of time of occurrence and duration, there were no special limitation as to when to have a performance. Most morning concerts were held as part of official duties for the envoys, after their meeting session, whereas evening concerts were more lengthy in duration, with a greater number of people in the audience. In the case of boat concert, samples include day-time concert and performances that began during the day and which lasted till later in the evening. Major terminology related to performance time and season includes descriptions of time of day (morning, evening, night) and mention of sunset, twilight, moonlight, stars, candles, and lamps. Such terms which reflect the flow of time contributed in making a concert more lively. Terminology for the contents of performance was mostly words like 'instrumental,' 'pungak,' or 'pungnyu.' Besides, contextual expressions gave hints as to whether there were dance, singing, ensemble, solo, and duets. Words for dance and singing used in Gwanseo province were almost identical to those used for gasa and jeongjae in the capital, Hanyang. However, many sentences reveal that performances of 'hangjangmu' of hongmunyeon, sword dance, and baettaragi were on a top-quality level. Moreover, chants in hanmun Chinese character and folk songs, which are characteristic for this region, show unique features of local musical performance. It is judged that understanding the purpose and background of a performance is important in grasping the foundation and continuity of local culture. Concerts were usually either related to official protocol for 'greeting,' 'sending-off,' 'reports,' and 'patrols' or for private enjoyment. The rituals for Gwanseo province characteristically features river crossing ceremony on the Daedong river, which has been closely documented by many. What is more, the Gwanseo region featured continued coming and goings of Pyeongan envoys and local officers, as well as ambassadors to and fro China, which required an organized and full-scale performance of music and dance. The method of performance varied from a large-scale, official ones, for which female entertainers and a great banquet in addition to musicians were required, to private gatherings that are more intimate. A performance may take the form of 'taking turns' or 'a competition,' reflecting the dynamic nature of the musical culture at the time. This study, which is deduction of terminology in relation to the time-space and appreciation culture of musical performances of Gwanseo region in late Joseon period, should be expanded in the future into research on 'the performance culture unique to Gwanseo region,' in relation to the financial and administrative aspects of the province, as well as everyday lifestyle. Furthermore, it could proceed to a more intensive research by a comparative study with related literary documents and pictorial data, which could serve as the foundation for understanding the use of space and stage, as well as the performance format characteristic to Korean traditional performing arts.