This paper is an attempt to examine the forms and potentialities of the historical drama, based on the recent discussions made in the academic circles, about the concept of 'history' and its methodologies. Generally, the ways in which history is represented in a historical drama are, re-interpreting existing historical facts (materials), discovering new historical material, or introducing new historical methods of interpretation.
The most popular method of the three is re-interpreting the historical material from the writer's perspective, based on his/her understanding of history. The present paper examines the characteristics and problems of such a method by examining O Tae Seok's Tae(Umbilical Cord). On the other hand, Aenikkaeng(Henequen) is a typical work that concentrates on objective representation of new historical discoveries. In other words, Aenikkaeng focuses on the 'historicity' of the subject matter, giving detailed information about the specific time and place of the historical event. Gyeong-suk-i, Gyeong-suk-i a-beo-ji(Gyeong-suk-i and her father) is a work that is neither based on existing historical material, nor new historical discoveries. Thus strictly speaking, it cannot be said to be a historical drama in the traditional sense. However, everyday experience of a family, revolving around Gyeong-suk-i is represented repeatedly, yet through unidentical events. Thus the work has the potential of a historical drama in the sense that it takes on the concept of history as an everyday experience.
This paper attempts to reinterpret the meaning of 'historical event,' employing the concept of 'pli(fold)-dépli(unfold)' and 'event' of Leibnitz and Deleuze. Given that a priori condition of drama is 'specific forms of representation in terms of time and space,' the probability of an event lies in the cause-and-effect relationship of the subject, that gives rise to the 'fold and unfold' of the event. Furthermore, probability of an event acts not only as a connection between two events, but also between two series of events as well, as a condition for compossibilité of the series and its cause-and-effect relationship. Therefore, should we accept the diverse concepts of history of today, the potential of a historical drama can be said to lie in the ways in which the concept of probability is applied to drama.