Stepping in the Madang: Sustaining Expressive Ecologies of Korean Drumming and Dance

by Donna L. Kwon

Overview

The madang is a key space and concept for Korean drummers and dancers. Literally a village circle, the madang is also a metaphor for an expressive occasion or cultural space of embodied participation. Korean performers step in the madang as a means of bringing their bodies into purposeful contact with the particular time and place of performance. Kwon contends that the participatory way of being that is cultivated in the madang counteracts the fossilization of tradition by bringing folk practices more fully into the embodied present, even if in an idealized fashion. The madang draws attention to the body; it increases one's awareness of space and place; and it creates open-ended performances that are conducive to a more dynamic range of social interactions. The book starts with a study of a Korean p'ungmul group that maintains a vibrant, expressive ecology in rapidly globalizing Korea. Kwon documents how historical trends, transmission practices, communal labor, and performative ritual all support this expressive ecology. The book then examines how these practices inspire meaningful, site-focused expressions of folk culture in regional, national, and transnational spaces.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780819501424
Publisher:	Wesleyan University Press
Publication date:	11/05/2024
Series:	Music / Culture
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	296
File size:	14 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

DONNA LEE KWON is associate professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Kentucky and the author of the book, Music in Korea: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture (2011).

DONNA LEE KWON is associate professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Kentucky and the author of the book, Music in Korea: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture (2011).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements • Introduction • Part I: Local Transmission and Ritual Performance • Chapter 1. 'In the Actual Cultural Space of Life' • Chapter 2. 'Becoming One' Through Site-Specific Intermodal Transmission • Chapter 3. Cultivating the Village, Preparing for Ritual • Chapter 4. 'Abundant Kut, Abundant Life': The Place of Ritual P'ungmul • Part II: Articulating Regional, National and Transnational Connections • Chapter 5. The madang on the Move • Chapter 6. Creative Korean Performing Arts: Attuning to the Deviating Rhythms of National Urban Spaces • Chapter 7. The Politics of Sounding Space in the Korean American Community • Conclusion • Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

"Using her concept expressive ecology, Kwon chronicles how village ritual performance becomes heritage folk arts for the nation and diaspora. In myriad new contexts, she richly illustrates how conceptions of madang continue to bind people to people, place, and nature in vibrant participatory experience."—Thomas Turino, author of Music as Social Life

"Stepping in the Madang is a significant contribution to ethnomusicological studies of music's relationship to movement, space, and place. It serves as a much-needed ethnographic testimony of a non-Western conceptualization and practice of space or place-making. By introducing readers to the philosophies that envelop Korean madang, Donna Kwon shares profound new insights into what an 'expressive ecology' can be—from the literal ground up to a manifestation of its conceptual, relational, and communal dimensions. Scholars will acquire new vocabularies by which to discuss the complexities and expressive nuances of 'sited-ness.'"—Katherine In-Young Lee, author of Dynamic Korea and Rhythmic Form

From the Publisher