Yochang-gagok or a selection of the sijos performed by female singers was formed on the basis of the popular culture of Seoul in the 19th century. In this context, it has often been characterized by popular sentimentalism although it bears other liter...
Yochang-gagok or a selection of the sijos performed by female singers was formed on the basis of the popular culture of Seoul in the 19th century. In this context, it has often been characterized by popular sentimentalism although it bears other literary characteristics than that. Its representations of love are specific and creative in the aspects as follows: the innovation of the traditional love poetry, the expression of self-consciousness by means of Korean vernacular, and the verbalization of rapture and passion through bold metaphors. These features can be summarized in a word, seriousness, which is opposite to the lightness of the namchang-gagok or a selection of the sijos performed by male singers: it represented love only sentimentally or comically. The seriousness embedded in the yochang-gagok indicates that the yochang-gagok was not only the product of male customers` taste, but also the work that reflected the reality and desire of the female singers, kisaengs, who yearned to surpass class boundaries through ideal love`s possibility. In this respect, the yochang-gagok was not the reproduction of feminine stereotypes, but the female discourse that expressed real women`s experiences and feelings.