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

Moon KyoungYeon 1

1경희대학교

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ABSTRACT

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.

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