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Reconsidering the Intertextuality of Muidogihaeng – Viewed from the Relationship with The Good Hope

  • The Journal of Korean drama and theatre
  • 2018, (61), pp.105-142
  • DOI : 10.17938/tjkdat.2018..61.105
  • Publisher : The Learned Society Of Korean Drama And Theatre
  • Research Area : Arts and Kinesiology > Other Arts and Kinesiology
  • Received : July 28, 2018
  • Accepted : August 27, 2018

KIM Moran 1

1와세다대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper attempts to give a significance to a newly found fact concerning Ham Sedeok (咸世德)’s Muidogihaeng (舞衣島紀行, 1941), his representative work that had, hitherto, been viewed from the standpoint of the relationship with the Irish dramatist J. M. Synge. What this paper shows as a new finding is that in all likelihood Muidogihaeng was an appropriated, or plagiarized, the work of a Dutch dramatist Herman Heijermans’s drama, Op Hoop Van Zegen (The Good Hope, 1900). In fact, it can be safely said that The Good Hope is the original text of Muidogihaeng because they share the main storyline and some other minor points, which totally updates the nature of the intertextuality seen in Muidogihaeng. The Good Hope, often positively valued as a legacy of the literary movement in naturalistic realism, was translated into Japanese by a leading light in the theater at the time, Kubo Sakaez(久保栄), in 1928 (under the title of Tenyumaru) and in 1930’s it was picked up often as an important play by many modern Japanese theatrical companies. After revealing the nature of The Good Hope as the original text of Muidogihaeng, the paper locates The Good Hope in the Shingeki movement. Then, it focuses on the two pieces of work derived from the Good hope: one is Gyomin (漁民, 1931), which is a drama concerning Japanese fishermen written by Kubo, and the other is Muidogihaeng, which is a drama concerning Korean fishermen written by Ham. Detailed comparison of these Japanese and Korean descendants of The Good Hope will illuminate the characteristics of Muidogihaeng which cannot be found in the original text (The Good Hope) or its Japanese counterpart (Gyomin). Former studies have argued that Muidogihaeng is original and creative because, different from the works of J. M. Synge that seeks the Irishness in the ahistorical spaces, it takes up not only nature but also the social and industrial structure as causes of fishermen’s predicament. To this very point this paper will make objection. Seen in the relationship with The Good Hope, Muidogihaeng, as a whole, less emphasizes the opposition to fishery capital; rather, it is a drama reorganized to highlight the tragedy of a mother who lost her loving son.

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