2024, Vol., No.83

The Journal of Korean drama and theatre 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.77

pISSN : 1225-7729 / eISSN : 2713-8453
https://journal.kci.go.kr/kdrama

The colonial censorship proceeded in a way that triggered self-censorship by producers while erasing traces of direct intervention. It was also transformed into a system that encourages production in certain directions instead of restricting expression. It was the entry into the war system and the subsequent demand for full mobilization that has been pointed out as the background of this change. However, a series of build-up processes would have been required for the existing negative strategy to be converted to a positive strategy. First of all, this essay focused on the development process of the public security maintenance law, and the situation in which the empire had to devise more effective control methods as it felt the limitations of administrative capacity. In particular, it was the human media that could induce sudden resistance that emerged as a new target in controlling the theater. The cases of control surrounding the Joseonkeukjang, KAPF, and Kuekyeon show strategic consistency aimed at fostering a 'adaptive subject'. When it was judged that it was difficult to control only text censorship, or when the need for control increased due to changes in the political situation, security authorities began an active crushing operation, and extra-legal violence such as targeted investigations was also committed. Furthermore, it induced self-denial of the authenticity of artists, and in this process, the social reputation they had accumulated in colonial Joseon society was inevitably seriously damaged. In other words, confiscation of cultural capital was aimed at destroying their support base and depleting their driving force.

Although censorship of translated plays is briefly strengthened during the time of emergency measures, the degree is not very serious compared to the pressure exerted on creative plays at the time. On the one hand, it is focused on blocking the proximity to Korean reality while allowing a foreign trend, and on the other hand, putting a bridle in the decadent wind in the name of preserving social discipline and ethics. In fact, there is not a high probability that a translation play will violate ideological censorship. The change in this pattern came as we entered the Fifth Republic. Generous to customs, but very clear motives work for ideas. The three plays rejected by ideological censorship call out a moment related to the history far from Korea, especially the history of revolution, and connect with the reality of this place where political discourse is underground. Free City brings Northern Ireland's 'Bloody Sunday' in 1972, July 14, 1793 brings the French Revolution, and People of Justice brings Russia’s 1905 revolution. The original scene, which is the source of the rejection, is the Gwangju massacre, the original sin of the Chun Doo-hwan administration. Free City reveals this very transparently. The translator appropriates Derry’s 'Blood Sunday' as Gwangju’s 'Blood Sunday' and Northern Ireland’s civil rights movement as South Korea’s human rights movement, and the censorship power notices that this transnational imagination is reaching the Gwangju Massacre. Since then, the other two are also subject to concealment as echoes representing the ideas and practices of the transformation caused by the violence. Although it is an absent existence, its imagination is actually intended to breathe with the spirit of the times as a political discourse that cannot be openly uttered on a official approved stage, especially in creative plays. However, it is also clear that ideological censorship has eroded another value of these translated plays. Its themes, 'freedom', 'human rights', 'revolution', and 'justice', are not political slogans. These ideological values not only question and redefine the language of domination that has been occupied by the military regime, but also seek the discovery of a resistant but reflective subject. It’s an important question in an era of suffocating politics, but when it’s easy to skip it, art can leave that very space open. It is this possibility that censorship powers have blocked. Ideological censorship closes the public debate of thought, blocking the dialectical possibility of time. Nevertheless, the dangerous transnational imagination needs to be restored in that it is a history of preserving ideological values in response to dictatorships.

The purpose of this study is to explore the changes in drama that have emerged in a multimedia environment. First, it examines how the shift to internet-based viewing has altered traditional viewing methods. Additionally, amid the genre differentiation that began in earnest with the rise of web dramas, the production and distribution of youth romance dramas have embraced hyperrealism as a contemporary trend. This study pays particular attention to the narrative techniques employed as both a storytelling and aesthetic strategy, and analyzes how they differ from traditional narrative approaches. As a result, it aims to move beyond the hierarchical distinctions between television dramas, web dramas, and OTT dramas, identifying the identity of dramas that exist through mutual negotiations between different media platforms. JTBC’s "Neverthless"(2021) and SBS's "Our beloved summer"(2022) serve as key examples, illustrating how television dramas have evolved within a multimedia environment while maintaining the classical broadcast format. These two works share several common characteristics in terms of production methods, content distribution, and narrative structure. They are particularly notable for adhering to the conventions of episodic composition, frequent use of voice-over narration, and romance narratives that emphasize the economic disparity between male and female protagonists. This focus on economic inequality should be closely analyzed as a narrative strategy that builds a sense of reality by connecting with the contemporary viewers' real-world concerns, in tandem with the conventions of the youth romance genre.