Symbolism of Food Expressed in Oral Folk Tale

Oral folk tale, which are organized stories that have been handed down to each district, includes a lot of mention about local specialties related to food. In folk tales consisting of linguistic signs, food plays a role in expressing not only instinct and desire but also order, exclusion and communication of human beings. Understanding the matters of concern or consciousness that community members of the time have put an emphasis on through food included in folk tales can be useful for better understanding the culture of the time and the food in folk tales can be a symbolic code. In this study, food mentioned in folk tales were classified into six groups, medicine, love, god, livelihood, provision and power focused on both inland and coastal regions that are referred to in most of the sixteen volumes of Korean Oral Folk Tales. In addition, the symbolic meanings of these groups were examined. This study can contribute to establishing the foundation of the globalization of the Korean food by determining the way Korea food can become a world class food. This study aims to reinterpret and combine culture and art with the food of Korea based on six symbolic meanings of food expressed in Korean Oral Folk Tales.