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Theater ‘Since Then’, from Mourning to Politics
Journal of Popular Narrative
2016, 22(3),
pp.7-44
DOI :10.18856/jpn.2016.22.3.001
Publisher : The Association of Popular Narrative
Research Area : Interdisciplinary Research
DOI :10.18856/jpn.2016.22.3.001
Publisher : The Association of Popular Narrative
Research Area : Interdisciplinary Research
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This article examines changes in the theater after the Sewol Ferry disaster of 16th of April, 2014 as phenomena of a social trauma. Plays performed since the Sewol Ferry disaster have perceived and reflected the aftermath of the event in various ways, and also tried to redefine the relationship between the stage and reality by concerning about the arts and society. After the disaster, in the face of an event which was difficult to represent yet, theatrical people chose to remember it rather than keep in silence. The fact that the truth of the Sewol ferry disaster has not been probed makes it an event in progress which is incapable of being narrated or mourned, and the disaster treated in the plays becomes difficult to be historicized as an object of representation. Therefore, plays after the disaster exist in the form of ‘feeling acutely’(痛感) the sadness coming up in an irrational way. Since the Sewol ferry disaster, deaths, waiting, sinking, and calamities in the plays which are irrelevant to the Seowl ferry disaster have been delivered to the audience as scenes suggesting and remembering the event. Also New Documentary theater using records of those days, testimonies and interviews of the bereaved questions what takes place of the paused mourning, by showing the everyday impact of a social trauma and making the audience experience it. However, phenomena inside and outside the theater have been interpreted as political acts by censorship. Theater after the Sewol ferry disaster reached a point where it has to ask the relationship between the arts and the nation. Plays after the Sewol ferry disaster are a groping for overcoming helplessness brought by the social trauma, as well as questions for the duty and capability of the theater in this era. The Sewol ferry disaster has not yet ended. Thus, the theater should remember it, face the problems of the nation exposed after the disaster and pose more profound questions about life and politics, even if it might fail. This article is a record for joining the process.
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