KJCKorea
Journal Central

Despite of much interest in historical dramas on television, understanding of historical dramas remains so far on a fragmentary level. This piece of writing in this reality attempted to broaden the scale of understanding that links history, historical dramas and television dramas by investigating the value of the text of <Tears of Dragon>, a historical drama. First of all, the trend of historical dramas before the 1990s was summarized to reveal that premodern view of history exist in the foundation of creating the work. <Tears of Dragon>, which is the object of the study, displayed following characteristics, deviating from the historical view of the previous time. The narrator in this work goes back and forth between the play and the reality to actively intervene in the construction of the narration, showing the accommodating strategy centered on the viewers. Moreover, images that are symbolically incorporated into the scenes produce a variety of narrative meanings. Another differentiation of <Tears of Dragon> lies in the political view that promotes internal solidarity by imagining external others. With this, thoughts of two opposing characters coexist and the logic that counteracts the outside is justified. Viewers imagine the past by viewing the past that has been reproduced here and now through historical dramas. The past and the present make diverse meanings every moment by comparing each other. <Tears of Dragon>, the historical drama is a worthy text that shows why certain past has now become a context.

Historical drama, <Tears of Dragon>, narrator, Mise-en-Scène, coexistance, politics