2013, Vol., No.40

A Study on an Excavated Play of Independence Period, Kim Taejin’s Imjinwaeran(1946)

Moon KyoungYeon | 2013, (40) | pp.11~50 | number of Cited : 4

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This study was triggered by the excavation of Kim Taejin’s Imjinwaeran (1946), a play whichwas performed during the independence period. The primary purpose of this paper is to analyze the work, Imjinwaeran which was performed in 1946 and investigate the historical plays of the independence period. Also, excavation of this work motivated me to shed light on Kim Taejin (1903-1949), an artist who has rarely been the subject of study in the history of modern Korean Drama. Kim Taejin was an all-around artist in the theatrical and movie circles of the colonial period actively working as actor, playwright and director. Getting involved in the early Trend School cinema, KAPF dramatic movement, popular drama, and national dramaduring the last stage Japanese colonial period, he lived a complicated life of an artist during the colonial period after the Independence, he participated in radical dramatic movement and defected to North Korea in 1947. The choices and activities, which reflected his thoughts and ideologies, become the grounds for interpreting his work, Imjinwaeran and also his theater theory of post-independence, in which he asserted the "national drama"based on the ideas of leftist cultural movement andKorean Drama League. Grounded on the beliefs of the leftist theatrical people, Kim Taejin’s Imjinwaeran was represented as a playwhich presented the "vision" for radical plays,in lieu ofdisplaying history as "facts" based on documentation and philological investigation. By using radical realism as the theoretical basis for the creation, old maladies of Korean society were candidly represented and the people and public were presented as the revolutionary power for the new historical period. Also, Yi Sun-sin,being summoned during Korea’s independence period, was presented as a lonely herosacrificed by the ruling class thatwere preoccupied with the power struggle among themselves rather than fending off the external enemy, the Japanese invaders, and the royal court that was riddled with the strife between factions. Yi Sun-sin, the hero was represented as the "good" ruler for being the only individual from the ruling class who formed solidarity with the ruled, and "the only person" who claimed the "people’s nation" against the misgovernment of the court.

Gender Politics of South and North Korean Drama in Liberation Period

Jun Jeenee | 2013, (40) | pp.51~88 | number of Cited : 9

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This thesis aims to examine drama works which were introduced in both South and North Korea from the national liberation to the Korean War. This approach may overlook any distinctiveness of different regimes between South and North bloc, but we can consider for a fact that contemporary people of theater in those days could not be separated completely from politics, regardless of their ideological orientations, and they were all motivated in common by the construction of Korea as national country. Moreover, drama works released in South and North Korea during the period were results from the efforts of creative subjects to illuminate audience by seriously thinking about the mission of drama during transitional period, and the drama of both regimes may be discussed together in that we can find out a common point where gender politics work as a means to place female figures. In main discussion, this study suggested that both regimes share a common point in that they project dual views on female figure as comrade as well as subject to correction. On the way to a combination of national discourses and gender discourses during liberation period, the dramatists of South and North Korea exclude or coerce fallen women to repent from their old way of life, while removing corporality of female figures they desire to embrace as comrade and rejecting their sexuality. On the other hand, these dramatists insert utterances of longing for strong body and power of men repeatedly into text of their drama, ultimately praising masculine sexuality. In other words, their contemporary dramas called women for industrial sites and cultural business, but it is men that took actual leadership for people, and the ideal community visualized by the dramatists was nothing but a completely hierarchical and men-driven community based on gender gap. As a result, on the way toward men-driven national country under the logic of mobilization during post-liberation transitional period, women who reveal shameful past of colonial days as well as negative aspects of their contemporary days had to follow the order of disciplines and illumination. Incidentally, any responsibility for sufferings of women who represent the tragedy of colonized nation and the confusion of liberated space was fully passed to those women, while male subjects could be relieved from any burden of responsibility for their daughters and sisters but could stand for the future of new Joseon. In rigid national discourses of contemporary drama, women became re-colonized and re-alienated without facing a real liberation for them. However, it is necessary to review the strategy for embracing and excluding them was dramatically successful. Desires for full control over sexuality in the name of national callings resulted in driving out profiteer's wife and hello girls. In many dramas, fallen women attribute any responsibility to themselves ultimately and punish themselves to act as if they were a heroine of tragedy, creating melodramatic excess. The traces of female figures and a gaze of compassion about them, which are not captured by a drama censorship system called North Korea's ‘Habpyeonghoe’(合評會) but are found in dramas of South Korea, resulted in remaining shades on a grand way toward new national foundation which contemporary dram texts pursued.

Study on Bando Gagŭk-dan’s Gagŭks in the Latter Period - focused on dramaturgy of Sukhyangjeon

MyungMun - Chung | 2013, (40) | pp.89~123 | number of Cited : 4

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Akgŭk has been on stage from the 1920s to the mid-50s in many different forms. Among them akgŭks based on ancient tales were mainly created by Lamila gagŭk-dan and Bando gagŭk-dan from the 1940s. Until now, Lamila and Bando gagŭk-dans were discussed along with each other by reason of the same creators in the initial period. Also, gagŭks based on ancient tales (hyangto gagŭk) have been studied limitedly focused on works of Seo Hang-suk and Ahn Ki-Young. However, Bando gagŭk-dan has a longer history than Lamila, and its creators have been replaced continuously. Accordingly, Bando gagŭk-dan and gagŭks based on ancient tales (hyangto gagŭk) can be said that they haven’t been fully researched. Newly discovered Bando gagŭk-dan’s works are expected to fill those gaps in drama studies. The dramaturgy captured in Sukhyangjeon (written by Yun Ja-hyeok, composed by Hyung Seok-gi, 1948) can be summarized as follows. First, it employed the basic storyline from the tale yet added new characters and incidents, so that the melodramatic elements and villains can be highlighted. Second, comic or action scenes irrelevant to the plot were inserted. Last, songs were inserted at the beginning and the end of each act, and this made it a typical form of akgŭk. Songs summarized themes, functioned as background music, and exposed one’s feeling. Characterfully, Sukhyangjeon, Bando gagŭk-dan’s work in its latter period had actions scenes, fancy stage settings, showy songs and dances, large scale of crowds and historical settings beside Choseon period. In other words, works of Bando gagŭk-dan in its latter period strategically arranged various elements to attract the audience and rejected emphasizing ‘ethnicity’ and ‘traditionality’ which were creative principles of hyangto gagŭk. The influence of such characteristics are found in other music dramas in the 1950s based on classics (akgŭk and female gukgŭk) as well.

Sexual ‘Freedom’ and Fissured Genderization in Post-Korean War Dramas

CHO SEO YOUN | 2013, (40) | pp.125~164 | number of Cited : 4

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This article attempts to present a new perspective to understand sexuality in the 1950s by analyzing the issue of ‘freedom’ that had multiple implications in the post-war field of discourse. ‘Freedom’ in the post-Korean War field of discourse was generationalized into one as the young generation’s resistance against the older generation. In addition, pleasure-seeking and fetishistic aspects of sexual ‘freedom’ influenced by American pop culture belonged to feminity, which became an object of the work of genderization. And yet, as in post-Korean War dramas, males also appeared as sexual beings in the space on the stage and on the horizon of the body, the structure of gender segregation by binary oppositions, the basic premise of genderization is nullified, which requires attention. Stage space of the post-Korean War dramas usually takes the form of an old decaying house with a heterogenous room filled with American-style audiovisual objects. In A Bridge of Abyss, the room space where a male character has an affair with a female character is an impurity that breaks in the family-house and at the same time a haven that allows them to dream beyond the ‘house-prison.’ In addition, the room space in A Locomotive Living on Petals is assigned to male characters from the beginning, which more powerfully breaks the structure of gender segregation, the base of the work of genderization around sexual ‘freedom.’ In these spaces, male characters mix generationalized ‘freedom’ with gendered ‘freedom’ and justify their goal, a shift in generations sensuously. In the post-Korean War dramas, sexual ‘freedom’ seem to have been visually represented through female bodies. And yet, in fact, male characters, too, appear as sexed bodies. This functions as a visual stimulus that nullifies the work of genderization in which sexual laxity or bodily exhibit belongs to females. A display of the image of the sexed body by young male characters forms a confrontation between the older generation and the young generation, and furthermore, they exhibit a power that criticizes patriarchal dominant discourse through sexual solidarity with female characters. The post-Korean War dramas showed a will to resist against existing systems and values on a sensuous level as well as a discursive level. This was a phenomenon made possible as sexual ‘freedom’ which was gendered as feminine and the youths’ existential ‘freedom’ shared a consciousness of a new generation. When the new generation characters in the post-Korean War dramas that dealt with the issue of ‘freedom’ broke down the structure of genderization by binary oppositions, at last, they could receive a sensuous power to achieve the shift in generations.

The Study on Various Aspects of Traditional Transformation appeared to <Read Sukyoungnangjajoen>

Choe Yun-young | 2013, (40) | pp.165~199 | number of Cited : 6

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A Study on Narrating Bandit on Television Dramas -Focusing on Iljimae and Iljimae Returned-

LeeSeunghyun | 2013, (40) | pp.201~227 | number of Cited : 2

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2013, Vol., No.40