도교 서사의 문화콘텐츠화 가능성 고찰 － 교인(鮫人) 이야기를 중심으로

Abstract

This article aimed at collecting, analyzing merman stories in Eastern Asia and examining possibility as cultural contents. Asian merman was called Kyo-in, Neng-in, Jeo-in and Haeinuh. The merman were real familiar to medieval Asian. Asian merman had human face. They were as tall as human-being and they had scaleless white skin. And Kyo-in made silk, their tears became pearls. Western mermaid was hostile to human, developed by mutation, but Asian merman was very friendly to human-being, they knew returning one's favor. They are weaker and feebler than human. Western merman stories started as negative images, but they were reborn to medial images, fantastic images and patron saint's images. If Asian merman stories are created, we can make a lot of interesting narrative structures.