본문 바로가기
  • Home

The variation and change of television historical drama in Korea

CHANG YUN JOO 1

1서울여자대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research is to suggest the classification of period over the 50 years in Korean television historical dramas. This research classifies the historical dramas at five periods, considering generic development and social context. First, it is called as 'the period of watching old stories and general education' from 1964 to 1971. Television historical dramas were strongly influenced by historical films and radio dramas which were popular in those days, dramatizing classic novels and legends in melodramatic conventions. Second, it is defined as 'the period of competition and dominant ideology production' from 1972 to 1982. Historical dramas were programmed from weekday series to daily series, focused on historical probability. Though the government forced the broadcasters to produce historical dramas to represent a historical view of a nation as a dominant ideology, these kinds of dramas were firmly excluded by the mass. Third, historical dramas have tended to 'pursuit historical facts' in 1983~1990, taking a perspective of historical records. In these days, as color television broadcasting was started, television historical dramas kept enlargement and promoted location production beyond studio production. This period is named as the history-based times. Fourth, 'the period of depression and groping' came on 1991~1999. The production of historical dramas was in depression, and historical dramas were not popular any more. The final period is considered as drama as imagination from 2000 to the present. Imaginative historical dramas have been popular, blending a wide range of conventions and inventions from trendy drama, melodrama and action drama. In addition, historical backgrounds have expanded to ancient history or the Koryo Dynasty.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.