A Study on Mythological Archetypes in the Choi In Hoon's World of the Play
The subject of this discussion is the fundamental tendencies of mythological archetypes that Choi In Hoon intended to embody in his plays. For development of such discussio...
A Study on Mythological Archetypes in the Choi In Hoon's World of the Play
The subject of this discussion is the fundamental tendencies of mythological archetypes that Choi In Hoon intended to embody in his plays. For development of such discussion, I attempted to organically analyse components inherent to Choi In Hoon's plays, such as dramatic standards, quotation aspects of tales, archetypical components, and aspects of mythological symbols, to draw conclusions.
Thus, this discussion origins from the acknowledgment of necessity for dramatical perspective regarding the views on mythological archetypes to place value in autonomous traits of Choi In Hoon's world in his plays. In addition, criticisms of psychologism and structuralism and other methods were selectively used as needed.
Choi In Hoon has gained his reputation as a novelist but could not overcome his limitations as an author, in other words, escape the agony of ‘consciousness of a great problem'. This sprang from the Choi In Hoon's way of thinking that an author cannot create ‘the earth' of the story. A literary work is created by the author without doubt, but the key fact is that ‘the earth' that becomes the foundation cannot be the author's creation. Therefore, ‘consciousness of a great problem' could be considered a problem of Choi's personal recognition regarding the absence of ‘the earth.' Here, ‘the earth' refers to the components that becomes the literary foundation of a literary work, what has been passed down along with the long history of humans such as folk tales, legends, or myths. Yet, Choi judges that Korean tales that has gone through the process of accumulation and selection are not appropriate for novels, which are based on realism. Based on this logic, Choi chooses the play as a new creative genre that allows him to work more freely from the realism. For Choi In Hoon, drama is a genre optimized for the application of ‘the earth' that can create inspiration and imagination on top of extra power granted by the stage - total creation through staffs and actors.
After choosing a genre for application of ‘the earth', Choi begins to write plays based on his unique standards. His first task was to expand and complicating the plots of the original text of the tales dramatically to give rise to plots with new aspects. This shows the author's will to express ‘something that goes beyond what can occur in human affairs', ‘happenings that are beyond imagination', or ‘human behavior with the biggest problem that become our food for thought' based on the ‘motif of mythological archetypes' on the face of the play. Thus, Choi begins to introduce extreme events such as ‘filicides' and ‘incests', and sometimes creates brand new world of mythological archetypes that is completely different from the original, using just the ‘leper motif' as in “When Spring Comes in the Hills and Fields."
For the next subjects of discussion, there are poetization of play languages(not only in the lines of characters but to stage directions), creation of a dream world, and the use of silent components such as stuttering and groping motions. Such methods are forms of dramatic dispositions that are at the same time indispensable and essential for creation of mythological archetypes, and is the pivotal axis in the completion of Choi In Hoon standards. “Where We Meet Who Will Be", “Long Long Time Ago Shoo-oo Shoo", “When Spring Comes in the Hills and Fields", “Doongdoong Nakrangdoong" and “Moon, Moon and the Bright Moon" are the five plays that arose from the above standards. We consider that these five plays to have quoted the tales of Ondal, the Baby Hercules(Agi Jangsu), Prince Hodong, and Simcheong in proceeding with the discussion.
In Choi's plays that have mainly quoted the tales, major archetypical components such as ascension motif, incest motif, motif of hero and deification, and rite of passage motif are inherent. These motifs provide key evidences in explaining the base of collective unconscious and genetically embedded memories of the human race, the mythological archetypes. Also, archetypes created from the dramatic compositions (dramatic dispositions) like ritualistic behaviors, methods of silence, dances and songs, and objets also contribute to the explanation of extremely primitive and stereotype patterns of humans.
Choi In Hoon has chosen drama as the best genre to most effectively create mythological archetypes. This is because drama thoroughly possess primitive tendencies, and the power of the actors and the staff have the potential to bring synergistic effects to produce the formidable stage of the mythological times. Furthermore, the most important fact is that mythological archetypes in Choi In Hoon's plays are not a component that tell from right and wrong or showing a measure of moral criterion in human life. The fundamental reason that Choi In Hoon wanted to discuss the mythological archetypes was his desire to have the audience engage in profound introspection regarding the essence of the humans. Thus, experiencing difficult and tragic weight of life like ‘filicides' or ‘incest' is one way of letting the audience participate in such process based on Choi's logic.
Also to gain a full understanding of the mythological archetypes inherent in Choi In Hoon's plays, we need a clear recognition of the symbolistic situations, since the components skillfully support the mythological archetypes are the symbols. Also, needless to say, symbols have serious importance as they carry the duty of clearly delivering the archetypical meaning in relation to the themes, forms of stage settings, character and behaviors of the actors in the dramatic aspects. Typical examples are as follows: ‘shadow' represent ‘the second ego', ‘pine tree' represent the ‘holy tree', ‘wing' represent ‘the sacred ascent', ‘mountain' represent ‘medium of resurrection', ‘tiger' represent ‘