Characteristics of Affect on Sinmyeong and Limited Affect on Nong-ak in Contemporary Era - Focusing on Nong-ak Designated for Intangible Cultural Heritage -

Sinmyeong is the name of specific affect as a subjective phenomenon displayed in a performance. From the perspective of affect theory, sinmyeong is the energy of bodily vitality and intense force, and this affect is expressed in intense joy, a sense of accomplishment, and confidence. Sinmyeong is experienced in a group and is easily generated in high-context communication based on sympathy. Sinmyeong, which has the specific feature of affect in its systematized joy, is expressed in a collectively powerful force and contains the ethical orientation of righteousness and justification at the same time. Under traditional society prior to the modern era, Nong-ak has been the cultural performance style to transform bodily joy into life competency in a virtuous circle. Nong-ak, which had been an act of high-context communication, has been produced through planning and performed as scheduled, while it lacks sympathy in the contemporary era in which it is performed on a low-context scale between the performers and audience. In addition, as much as the lifestyle of a contemporary person is diverse, the audiences are living under a pattern and rhythm with respectively different lives and, because of this attribute, they are not affected or synchronized with the Nong-ak rhythm occurring in the agricultural society. Consequently, contemporary Nong-ak performance could not reinforce the affect enough to reach sinmyeong, and it is only capable of generating limited affect.