KJCKorea
Journal Central

Kim Jin-gu and Yoon Baek-nam are mentioned as the representative narrative speakers of yadam (野談, tales of unofficial histories) in the 1920s and the 1930s. This study started from a critical awareness that the differences exhibited by Kim Jin-gu and Yoon Baek-nam cannot be simply explained within the framework of enlightenment versus commercialism. To examine the points of divergence and specific differences in the yadam of Kim and Yoon, this paper analyzes the yadam performance travelogues they each serially publish ed in <The Dong-a Ilbo>. Firstly, Kim Jin-gu’s travelogue recounts a series of events leading up to holding a yadam contest in Nonsan and reflects on them. Performances by speakers, including him, tend to take on the nature of charity performances or propaganda campaigns to help ignorant local and local audiences. And the reconstruction of Kim Ok-kyun’s narrative is problematic as it serves as a groundwork for the theory of ‘Korea and Japan are One (內鮮一體)’ that Kim Jin-gu would later unfold in the mid-1930s. Instead of directly revealing the awareness of the colonial situation, Yoon Baek-nam guides readers to infer the meanings by briefly mentioning Adm. Yi Sun-sin of the Joseon dynasty, who received a significant attention in society at the time. This difference is reminiscent of the characteristics of the yadam of Kim and Yoon. On the other hand, what is confirmed in both Kim Jin-gu and Yoon Baek-nam’s travelogues is that the spread of yadam performances was not only possible by the performances of speakers from Gyeongseong, the capital of the nation. In fact, the efforts and cooperation of the characters whose names were briefly mentioned during Kim Jin-gu and Yoon Baek-nam’s travelogues supported the spread of yadam to the local. In essence, while the form and material of modern yadam may have been inherited from the past, its resurgence reflects the voices of contemporary public, and the heyday of yadam emerged in the 1930s through a process of accommodating and transforming the public demands.

Yadam performance, Yoon Baek-nam, Kim Jin-gu, travelogue, the Narrative of Kim Ok-kyun, the Preservation Movement of the Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s Historical Remains, Local Public