A Study on the Context of Gender Issues in Banghanlim-jeon: Focusing on the Perspective of “Making Men”

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine Banggwanjoo’s transvestism in Banghanlim-jeon as “man-making” by external influences, and to investigate the gender issues implied by her narrative. In the beginning, Banggwanjoo observed that she expressed her male gender identity in response to her parents’ subtle desire for her to be a man. After losing her parents, her gender identity became fossilized, leading to her immersion in her ideal life as a man. The reason Banggwanjoo wore men’s clothes and devoted herself to the revival of the family, was to create a perfect man’s narrative. At first glance, her life appeared successful; however, her inner self was filled with tension, anxiety, and pain. She was unable to become a perfect man or woman because of her dual identity: her gender identity as a male, and her natural female body, which she did not choose. Such a figuration of Banggwanjoo is not only meaningful in her own space-time, but embodies a tragedy of human life, that occur at any time and place where oppressive gender norms are excessively applied.