북한 설화에 대하여 - 관련자료집의 현황과 연구 과제를 중심으로

This study attempts to look into the present status of North Korean Folktale materials along with their characteristics and thereby mention the problems to be addressed as soon as possible in order to launch an in-depth study of North Korean folktales.<BR> The overall characteristics of the folktale collections that North Korea has published are as follows.<BR> First, the criterion with which to collect and publish the materials is such that while in South Korea all the materials collected or discovered are to be published only those which have been ratified by the North Korean authorities or by the self-imposed criteria of the editors or the publishers are to be published.<BR> Second, the narrative characteristics are such that in the case of oral literature not the dictation itself but the modified version is to be published, and that written-form style is preferred to spoken-form style. Also, there is no information given with regard to how or by whom the material was collected so that it has only a poor reliability as an academic research material.<BR> Third, the taxonomic characteristics are such that the North Korean publishers arrange the material on different criteria from South Korean counterparts. They list the materials in four major categories: legends, folktales, fairy tales, and fables. In South Korea, the general trend is toward the ternary classification; however, in North Korea the five-branch classification seems to be applied by means of subcategorizing the folktales into fairy tales and fables.<BR> Fourth, the tales with a higher frequency seemed to be changed since the `Fool` stories along with the `Stupid Bridegroom` stories are nowhere to be seen despite the fact that they were very popular before the Separation. Understandably, such witty and humorous stories were considered as least helpful to instill the spirit of militant socialism. Instead, the stories that would inculcate the juche ideology and anti-feudalism and the stories that would glorify the virtues of the people are repeatedly printed and introduced.<BR> The tasks that should be urgently dealt with in the near future are as follows.<BR> First, the job of successfully collecting all the available materials of North Korean folktales should be done.<BR> Second, the base versions of the North Korean oral tale collections that have been published since the Separation should be imported and introduced.<BR> Third, a way of going to North Korea and collecting the oral tales from the North Korean residents themselves should be found.<BR> Finally, as soon as the base versions are collected and the on-site research is done, such major studies as diachronic studies, comparative studies, taxonomic studies, typological studies and regional studies could be launched.