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Instrumental Relations: Society and Dramatic Reflection - Focusing on My Haebang Ilji -

  • Korean Language & Literature
  • 2023, (125), pp.169-200
  • Publisher : Korean Language & Literature
  • Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature
  • Received : November 6, 2023
  • Accepted : November 23, 2023
  • Published : November 30, 2023

Park, Mi-kyoung 박미경 1

1충남대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the three Yeom siblings, who are the main characters in My Haebang Ilji, who represent their 20s and 30s, and show the difficulty of establishing personal relationships by being hurt and frustrated in their relationships with others. The failure to establish relationships in My Haebang Ilji reminds us of the problematic reality that young people in Korean society are currently experiencing. Accordingly, this paper explores the causes of impersonal and instrumental relationships reproduced in My Haebang Ilji, analyzes the instrumentalization patterns centered on the characters, and examines the characters' reactions and ways of overcoming them. To this end, we examined how the main characters of My Haebang Iljil are objectified as tools or means, through the way objectification is realized based on the relational theory of Martin Buber, a philosopher of human relations theory. Next, we examined the main characters' reactions to the instrumental relationship society and how each of them changes in their own way. The instrumental relationships shown in My Haebang Ilji can be seen to be derived from the negativity of reality, such as individualism, centralism, poor bonds of unstable irregular workers, and performanceism and materialism of the younger generation who have internalized infinite competition under the neoliberal economic system. In this instrumental relational society, the three siblings are hurt and frustrated, but they find their own true way of relating to each other, and show the possibility of liberation from non-subjective objectification. In the drama My Haebang Ilji, it was also shown that true relationship can begin when we face each other not as a thing, but as an I-you, that is, a person and a person. In the course of this study, we were able to see that the ontological concern about 'what is human existence' is ultimately replaced by the relationship between the characters in My Haebang Ilji and leads to an opportunity for dramatic reflection. Above all, the search for the spiritual values that we need to recover and a better place in life through dramatic imagination can be evaluated as providing an opportunity for reflection through television dramas.

Citation status

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