This study is an attempt to find vestiges of single women"s agency in Choson society by looking at Choson"s policy of encouragement of marriage and its related discourses surrounding the single women. In Choson dynasty, it was believed that too many single women would break the harmony and thus bring the nation a bad luck. Based on this belief, the policy of encouragement of marriage was enforced especially focusing on women. The women who stayed single after the appropriate age for marriage were regarded as abnormal and even dangerous. How did the patriarchal order founded on the neo-Confucianism affect the women"s position? Was it possible, in Choson society, for a woman to live a single life without belonging to a family through the institution of marriage? If so, is it possible for us to find the traces of her life now? One of the options for a woman to live a single life in Choson society was to become a Buddhist nun. However, the Buddhist nuns were doubly marginalized in the society that was dominated by neo-Confucianism. The Confucian elites ostracized Buddhism insisting that the spread of Buddhism would result in the fall of the nation. Within the social context, a Buddhist nun was worse than dangerous. She was fatal being. Stories describe Buddhist nuns as lascivious and treacherous. While the government employed a policy that encouraged these Buddhist nuns to return to secular life and get married on the one hand, it tried to put the Buddhist nuns out of sight of the rest of the society on the other hand. They were not even permitted to enter the capital city. These marginalized single women had no agency to leave their own records. Therefore, we need to adopt an alternative critical lens in analyzing the discourses about single women rendered by patriarchal perspective in order to reconstruct these women"s lives, desire, and choices that have been so far invisible.
이 글은 조선시대 혼인장려책과 그 속의 담론을 통해 유교적 가부장제가 여성을 묶어낸 방식을 알아보고, 혼인하지 않은 주변적 독신여성의 흔적을 찾아보고자 한 것이다. 조선시대에 시행된 혼인장려책은 특히 여성을 대상으로 시행되었다. 혼인하지 못한 처녀가 많으면 나라에 재앙이 일어난다는 논의가 이 제도의 시행을 뒷받침했다. 이는 결혼한 여성을 정상으로, 결혼하지 않은 여성을 비정상적이며 위험한 존재로 여기는 담론이었다. 유교적 사회질서 안에서 정상으로 인정받을 수 없었던 독신여성들은 불교의 승려가 되기도 했다. 조선시대 남성들의 기록에서 여승들은 음란하고 요망한 존재로 묘사되었다. 특히 처녀로서 여승이 되는 것은 더욱 문제시되었다. 조선의 조정에서는 이러한 여승을 환속하여 결혼하게 만드는 정책을 폄과 동시에 그들을 도성 안에 들어오지 못하여 하여 정상적 사람들의 경계 밖으로 배제하고자 했다. 정상적 유교규범의 경계를 넘어선 주변적 존재인 독신여성들에 대한 담론을 통해 그들의 존재를 상상적으로 구성하고, 조선시대 가부장제의 틈새를 엿보고자 한 것이 이 글의 목적이다.
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