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Artistic and Philosophical Consideration about Dancing and a Body of Korea in the Early 20th Century

  • Journal of Humanities
  • 2009, (44), pp.215-236
  • Publisher : Institute for Humanities
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : June 18, 2009
  • Accepted : July 28, 2009

Sanghwan Bak 1

1성균관대학교

Candidate

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this composition is to analyze development of traditional dancing proceeded in the early 20th century in a modernization logic. Modern dancing with a style of Seung-hee Choi obtained tremendous popularity and succeed in social communication in the social conditions at that time that civilization(namely, modernization) was recognized as Westernization, whereas traditional artists' efforts to create a tradition have failed and they became gisaengs in the end. Although they use the same body as a medium of artistic expression, what is the reason that a gisaeng and an artist are divided into each other? This composition is to find the reason in a standardization process of arts based on courtesy and music ideas. As traditional dancing is standardized very early, space of creation spirit and a self-regulating individual for aesthetic interest of a creator and a receiver of dancing was not sufficiently developed, at last, it is judged that traditional dancing of Korea didn't create internal power to be modernized spontaneously in the age of rapid change in the end of the 20th century. The body that is a medium of dancing in this process couldn't develop to an individual as a subject and remained still as an object of social regulation, and the regulation subject was changed only from the absolute kingdom named Joseon to Japanese colony ruling parties, and thus general receivers agreed to these artisitc and social regulation relations internally. The meaning of self-regulating space of an individual and introspection about the body as an expression medium of dancing in the art creation process can be said like the present assignment ranged the whole development recognition of the Korean society surpassing the category of arts and learning. The composition of this writing is as follows. First, it is to view processes of reception of Western dancing and traditionalization of traditional dancing in a modernizing logic. Second, it is to interpret a standardization process of dancing as a kind of formal modernization in the premodern society governed by Neo-Confucian values and analyze positive and negative aspects contained in the formalization. Especially, social governing discussion about a body is an analysis object. The composition doesn't directly mention problems of definition and period division of modern dancing being regarded as important in the composition related with Korean modern dancing, so the change and developing processes of Korean dancing in the early 20th century are analyzed by focusing on the modernization logic.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.