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1

Characteristics of Female Figures and Memories of Women in Korean Narrative Songs

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Suh Y.

Studia Ethnologica Pragensia

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2023

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issue 1

226-235

EN

This article examines how Korean narrative songs have, since the Middle Ages, formed and transmitted the memories and figures of women. These narrative songs have been created and handed down as labour songs mainly by lower-class women, reconstructing women’s specific experiences and memories. Korean narrative songs in traditional society are mostly concerned with the life of a woman in a male-centred, patriarchal society. The female figures expressed in these songs show how Korean women recognize their social reality. The figuration of women in Korean narrative songs can be categorized into 4 branches according to whether or not adversity is resolved to meet personal or social expectations. The A type (Personal expectations +, social expectations +) and the B type (Personal expectations +, social expectations –) are very rare in narrative folk songs. In the C type (Personal expectations –, social expectations +), the female figure lives according to social expectations or commits suicide. Most Korean narrative songs belong in the D type (Personal expectations —, social expectations –). When her personal expectations conflict with social expectations, the female figure commits suicide or becomes a monk. These female figures continue to reappear in women’s memories and are embodied in narrative songs. This shows the tragedy of women’s lived experiences and their perception of reality in Korean traditional society. The narrative songs were suitable for women’s work because they were lengthy and replaced expectation and frustration with the sequence of events. Women poured out their sorrows by singing narrative songs, allowing them to forget the suffering of hard work. Narrative folk songs still have many implications in Korean society because the status and reality of women still does not match that of the democratic, equal society we believe we have achieved. However, it cannot be denied that narrative songs contributed to the movement towards gender equality in Korean society.

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‘José Pina E Maribela’: A Narrative Song About A True Suicide Pact

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Paiva Morão A. M.

Studia Ethnologica Pragensia

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2023

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issue 1

125-169

EN

The aim of this study is to understand how communities hold onto memories through ballads and folk songs, especially when they relate to social issues, and will use a Portuguese narrative song based on a true event to examine this and other related matters. On 13 September 1914, a boy and girl from different socio-economic classes enacted a suicide pact because their families disapproved of their love. The violent death of these youngsters imprinted a strong impression on the small Portuguese community where it happened. The case was perpetuated in the narrative song, ‘José Pina e Maribela’, that spread throughout the years to various regions where it was collected. Based on fifteen versions of this song, this paper analyses how and what facts of the event were kept by the collective memory of the community and identifies the narrative invariance of the song and the variants that occur in these versions. The paper also refers to the appropriation of ‘José Pina e Maribela’ by some regional entities, creating a constructed memory as a touristic product, as opposed to the natural process of transmission of traditional literature, which accepts variation.

3

Some Patterns of the ‘Murdered Sweetheart Ballads’ in Oral Tradition, Early Recordings, and Popular Culture

86%

Dattilo D.

Studia Ethnologica Pragensia

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2023

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issue 1

24-40

EN

Narrative songs with regards to the theme called ‘murdered sweetheart”, are part of a wider repertoire of murder ballads that circulated in England, Scotland, Ireland, and North America. It is through these Murdered Sweetheart Ballads (cf. Wilgus 1979), that the balladeer informed the listeners about the tragic consequences of non-standard behavior in certain social contexts, such as: pregnancy out of wedlock in patriarchal communities. Murder ballads that contain specific references to facts which occurred in real life (such as the representative case of the assassination of Naomi Wise in Randolph County, back in 1808) passed mainly (through not only) in oral music contexts; despite the transient nature of the singing itself, the meanings behind certain verbal expressions were transmitted and finally preserved in sound recordings released from the early twentieth century onwards. These traditional patterns, that are related to the controversial imagery of women murdered by men and developed in both oral and written traditions, were gradually revised, transposed, and reinterpreted in popular culture by musicians who were engaged within the recording industry as well as filmmakers—each applying their own understanding with regards to this sensitive subject.

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3 Studia Ethnologica Pragensia

1 Dattilo D.

1 Paiva Morão A. M.

1 Suh Y.

3 2023

Characteristics of Female Figures and Memories of Women in Korean Narrative Songs

‘José Pina E Maribela’: A Narrative Song About A True Suicide Pact

Some Patterns of the ‘Murdered Sweetheart Ballads’ in Oral Tradition, Early Recordings, and Popular Culture