Images and the Historicity of Korean Women through the Lens of «Geumosinhwa»

This paper focuses on the female protagonists of three stories [‘Manboksa chŏp’o ki’, ‘Yi-saeng kyujang chŏn’ and ‘Ch’wiyu pubyŏkchŏng ki’], among the five tales in Kim Si-sup's Geumosinhwa (金鰲新話), and examines the image of women in Korean literature. The interest in the female protagonists appearing in these three stories stems from the fact that they do not rely on the ‘man’ at the moment they have to make important decisions in their life, but act proactively and choose a ‘chastity’ to protect their dignity as human beings. This appearance is in contrast to the existing ‘traditional female image’, which portrays woman as a victim or a passive existence of male-centered thinking, bound and restrained under Confucian patriarchalism. So, first of all, I paid attention to the active and leading attitude that they show in the face of important events. Then, I tackle the topic of the dignified women who did not submit at all, even in the face of death, rather than keeping her chastity due to compulsion. Furthermore, it can be seen that these women were in a relatively horizontal relationship with men, even under the social institutional device, in the lens of matrilocal marriage and the equality of inheritance. This novel was written less than a century after the establishment of the Joseon Dynasty, before Confucian ideology was deeply rooted in Joseon society and the patriarchal system was established. So it could be said that in this work we can find different women who live dignified lives and feels love like human beings rather than being overshadowed by men. I think it will be meaningful in that it can throw a new perspective to whom is used to think about Korean women as passive tools in the hands of men during the Joseon Dynasty.