A Literary Approach to Lim Jintaek’s New Pansori 3: On Great Man Pansori

This study aims to examine diachronic changes in Lim Jintaek's new pansori from a literary perspective. Twelve works were divided into three categories-damsi, testimony, and great man pansori-and analyzed. The analysis focuses on expression features, story worlds, and aspects of the works as artistic media. This paper concentrates on the great man pansori series, which comprises seven works from the period 2010-2022. These works use expressive characteristics to enlighten audiences regarding the lives and achievements of great men. The great man pansori features cases where the Aniri does not guide the song and others where the life of a great man is introduced through a few illustrations. This is because the work was not organically composed around a conflict; rather, it aims to introduce the life of a great man to the audience. The enlightenment goal is also evident in the narrative perspective. Specifically, the narrator uses an external or internal perspective to describe the story world in detail, or the singer teaches the audience through speech provided from a private perspective. The stories of the great man pansori are set in the past, which is referenced as a source of lessons and as a model for solving contemporary problems. The present is regarded as a problematic time to which the model of the past has been lost rather than inherited. The lives of the protagonists are filled with things befitting great men, leading audiences to the misconception of greatness as predestined in the lives of such men and thus burdensome on them. However, the transformation of an ordinary person into a great one is convincingly depicted. The great man pansori adopts a chronological, episodic structure. However, the episodic characteristic does not reveal a three-dimensional or polyphonic approach to the theme of the work. Regarding artistic communication in the great man pansori, the singer assumes the role of enlightening the audience. The story world communicates the life of a hero of whom contemporary audiences should be aware. The great man pansori assumes that the audience comprises people who must change themselves and reform the world. Therefore, the reality of the audience is linked to the need for change. The underlying assumption is that the audience has not yet inherited the values and achievements of the great men featured in the stories. However, the audience enlightenment at which the great man pansori aims is difficult to achieve for two reasons. First, although the great figures are admirable, their flawless nobility prevents the audience from learning how to change their own inner selves. The second obstacle is that the audience is assumed to be deficient. From the perspective of the great man pansori, this deficiency is inherent among audiences. Hence, the great man pansori makes audiences uncomfortable by emphasizing their passivity in the quest to determine the value of life.