KJCKorea
Journal Central

In the east, the theatrical tradition is just as strong as that in the west, and this has also provided inspiration for reforming western plays, which face a crisis in the twentieth century. However, also in the east, unlike the enthusiasm for western plays, attention and enjoyment and acceptance of traditional eastern plays have been lacking. There has also been a lack of attempts to combine eastern and western traditional plays with the unique perspective of the Orient. Given this situation, director Koh Sun-Woong's acceptance and adaptation of the Chinese classics represented a significant attempt that uncovered the value and possibilities of classical Chinese plays while also adding to our understanding of plays in neighboring countries. It is also meaningful that director Wang Xiao-Ying took the initiative to incorporate classical Oriental plays, reaching the stage of cultural exchange with the west. Based on earlier work, this article examines narrative structure performance techniques, thus far scarcely touched upon, and compares meaning creation in plays, amplifications of tragedy, and the formation of inner structures by analyzing the structure performance techniques of the two aforementioned adaptations. Specifically, this article initially analyzes the composition of the narrative structure in the original work and the plot changes in the two adaptations. Based on these findings, the analysis turns to the types of new meanings that arise and how they affect the amplification of tragedy through the various uses of a repetitive narrative structure, which is a structure feature. Moreover, taking note of hidden characters used in both adaptations, this article looks at how their insertion adds a three-dimensional inner structure to the original structure.

External view, Hidden character, Inner structure, Jossigoa(The Orphan of Chao, <조씨고아>), Narrative structure, Repetition