This paper analyzes institutional theaters, plays of National Drama Company of Korea in the 1970s of military regime era when the politic authoritarianism surged. It aims to argue the strategies of military regime and reconsider the stereotype of masc...
This paper analyzes institutional theaters, plays of National Drama Company of Korea in the 1970s of military regime era when the politic authoritarianism surged. It aims to argue the strategies of military regime and reconsider the stereotype of masculinity which injected the logic of the military policy by hegemonic masculinity and it aims to reflect the national dominant ideology by using the plays of National Drama Company of Korea as the orthodox play for the cultural policy to secure the legitimacy about the policy by the government in order to rationalize domination of regime.
The government tried to promote utilitarian plan to maintain the system and to persuade the public in various forms, among which one was propaganda and agitation through culture and art. In theatrical world, the theater troupe by which the government tried to intervene and interfere more than any other institutions was the National Drama Company of Korea. Thus, the National Drama Company of Korea was not free from the government’s censorship and surveillance and could not but be restricted to orthodox plays. And it was in a condition in which it had to produce the original plays reflecting on the state’s ideology as a means of maintaining and spreading political doctrines. Plays of the National Drama Company of Korea uses masculinity as a method to realize the government’s dominant ideology in works. The military regime in the 1970s that attached importance to physical military force and military virtues as a garrison state, by spreading and brainwashing hegemonic masculinity to the public, tried to mobilize the public as forces supporting policies and thoughts of the military forces. To discuss plays of the National Drama Company of Korea in the 1970s in this perspective, the definitions of concepts of masculinity from the perspectives of ideology, nationalism, cultural policy and gender were preceded and a study on Park regime’s own ideological specificity and the characteristics of cultural policies carried out for the then literary renaissance was also prioritized.
The target plays of this study include 16 works: Wonsullang (1970) by Yu, Chi-Jin, One Day of Mr. Son-Dal (1970) by Lee, Il-Young, Racist's Hand (1970) by Jeon, Jin-Ho, People in Shilla (1971) by Kim, Kyoung-Ok, Moon House (1971) by No, Kyoung-Sik, Songhakjeong (1972) by Lee, Jae-Hyeon, Prisoners (1972) by Lee, Jae-Hyeon, Fantasy Travel (1972) by Cha, Beom-Seok, Great Hero, Lee Sun-sin (1973) by Lee, Jae-Hyeon, Active Volcano (1974) by Cha, Beom-Seok, Jingbirok (1975) by No, Kyoung-Sik, Shout (1976) by Kim, Eui-Kyoung, Sontag Hotel (1976) by Cha, Beom-Seok, Attachment of Life (1977) by O, Young-Jin, Forest of Massacre (1977) by Cha, Beom-Seok, Youngster wearing a Straw Hat (1977) by Han Rho-Dan, and each chapter analyzed the internal factors of male character (Item A) and theatrical device (Item B) in the plays and tried to draw out ideology and masculinity reflected on the playes in the correlation with external factors of the military regime and the cultural policies.
In the 1970s, South Korea should strengthen its miliary force preparing unpredictable situations such as North Korea’s military provocations or surprise attacks in the strained relation with it, and attached great importance to the mission of the soldier. And since it aimed at militarism, it tried to put forth military buildup ideology to solidify policies and thoughts as a military regime as one logic of rule. Chapter Ⅱ deals with plays that tried to realize heroic masculinity based on this military buildup ideology. Heroic masculinity was ideal one the military regime desired, so the traces of attempt to symbolize it as a stereotype of masculinity are found in the plays of the National Drama Company of Korea Hero characters appearing at the ages of hardships are staged as characters with strong, hard body masculinity through the plays such as Great Hero, Lee Sun-sin, Shout, Youngster wearing a Straw Hat, etc. and a series of spiritual values such as morality, patriotism, loyalty were regarded as the virtues of hard body masculinity. In addition, their physical beauty also was suggested as the criterion of forming the stereotype of masculinity. Meanwhile, by granting counter type to ordinary males not enemies or showing lacks of virtue of masculinity even in heroic characters, there is also a private point of the fact that hard body masculinity cannot be requested for all males and that heroic masculinity is a forcibly imposed gender by ideology.
In the meantime, Chapter Ⅲ and Chapter Ⅳ, a collection of masculinity and economic masculinity were not hegemonic masculinity like heroic masculinity settling firmly as the stereotype of true masculinity, but one which the military regime should be accompanied to keep and reinforce its normative values and order. And by implying this masculinity in the works, it tried to promote ideologies in propagandic nature such as anticommunist ideology and development ideology to the public.
Chapter Ⅲ includes plays born by South Korean government’s purposive property of encouragement of anticommunist consciousness to the public to preoccupy more prominent position beyond equal relationship with North Korea in a competitive and hostile relationship with North Korean socialist system. In the plays, lines criticizing communism or emphasizing communists’ dreadful words and behaviors, were inserted, so a discourse sympathizing with anticommunist Park regime was formed. However, in the plays such as Prisoners, Forest of Massacre and Moon House, etc. anticommunist consciousness is found, but it is hard to see them as works claiming fully anticommunist plays. Instead, by describing that usually ordinary individuals came to choose a system and thought forcibly regardless of their will, they focused on the stories of people victimized, exploited as tools and abandoned due to system competition between the North and the South Korea. In other words, unlike the government’s purpose of seeking to make a genre out of anticommunist plays, by visualizing countless unnamed victims, rather it played as a role criticizing the system struggle.
Park regime actively promoted economic development policy including a 5-year economic development plan, and as community development movement, it actively carried out Saemaeul movement to solve poverty in farming areas. To promote Saemaeul movement, Saemaeul plays were created to attract voluntary participation of farmers for rural area development. Thus, In Chapter Ⅳ, Saemaeul movement plays such as Songhakjeong and Active Volcano reflected on development ideology, and leader characters standing at front for the development of the village were set to having economic masculinity. Meanwhile, radical industrialization and economic growth increased the gap between urban areas and farming areas, blocked fellowships between people, and caused materialism and selfishness. Accordingly, economic masculinity pursuing only individual profits with negative connotation as in One day of Mr. Son-Dal and Fantasy travel were also shown in plays of the National Drama Company of Korea.
In the correlation among the 1970s military regime, its culture and art policy, dominant ideology and masculinity, by analyzing plays of the National Drama Company of Korea, it is found that they showed biased ideology toward the then regime’s positions. By selectively choosing works corresponding to its ideology, according images of masculinity also are found. However, as orthodox plays, in spite of the National Drama Company of Korea’s heavy responsibilities for propaganda and agitation of the government’s ideology, there were also private consciousness which did not correspond to the ideology. The then writers who perceived the absurd aspects of the military regime such as absolute power elite’s autocratic mindset and according unequal hierarchy structure, etc. tried to express another consciousness inside in a way avoiding censorship and control. And through this series of analysis, it was proven that masculinity is a product of ideology at last, and it is hoped that this study will become one to contribute to deconstruction of the stereotypes of homogenized and fixed masculinity from biological or embryologic perspective.