Shamanic Epics and Narrative Construction of Identity on Cheju Island

Oral traditions can contain elements of historical evidence and convey meaning. The narrative pattern of oral epics serves not merely as "a mnemonic device" that aids in recalling significant historical events but makes meaningful connections to the cultural experience of identity politics. On Cheju Island, a volcanic island located some fifty miles below the southernmost tip of the Korean peninsula, the indigenous sense of identity and history is expressed and accentuated in the fate of the shrine deities who are portrayed as exiles in shamanic epics such as ponhyang ponp'uri. The tragic heroism in the cliché of exile and return of the shrine deities recapitulates the historical identity of Cheju people as "exiles at the frontier." After Cheju Island lost political autonomy as an independent kingdom, Tam-ra, in the early twelfth century, the Cheju people's cultural memory of isolation and redemptive desire for liberation from the mainland state's domination becomes intelligible and justifiable textually through the heroic acts of exiled deities.