Commencing with proletarian dramas, Park Youngho and Song Young through Dongyang Theater in the 1930s rose to the ranks of popular playwrights. They contributed to the development of Korea's modern dramas, pursuing a new drama movement or middle drama...
Commencing with proletarian dramas, Park Youngho and Song Young through Dongyang Theater in the 1930s rose to the ranks of popular playwrights. They contributed to the development of Korea's modern dramas, pursuing a new drama movement or middle drama theory. Moreover, they developed their unique dramaturgy, incorporating it in various works and utilizing it diverse forms of dramaturgy. As proponents of socialism, they were arrested and imprisoned several times and later immersed themselves in writing anti-Japanese dramas. However, upon the founding of Chosun Drama Association, they shifted their perspectives and began to write pro-Japanese purposive dramas, in effect serving as Japan's stooges.
Yet, since 1940, they did not entirely create dramas only for promoting Japanese policies, but preserved some of their conscience as writers by passively criticizing the conditions of the times. For instance, in 1940, Park Youngho exposed the pretense of the Manchuria Migration Policy and realistically portrayed it through the lives of Chosun's common people in Lamplight. Also, in his 1942 drama Wild Pig, he portrayed a character steeped in socialist ideology to emphasize the consolidation of labor and capital and to acknowledge societal conditions from critical views.
Song Young, in his 1940 drama Kim Satgat [A Vagabond], characterized a satiric poet, Kim Byeongyeon, to illustrate the lives of Chosun's people who were forced to wander. In his 1942 Mountain Winds, through the death of a mother, the children were left with a lesson of becoming genuine human beings. This signified that Song Young portrayed his passive criticism of the changing times in his work.
However, beginning 1943, their dramas evolved into propaganda pieces that promoted Japan's war victories and Japanese ideologies. This shift was closely related to the currents of the time. That is, when the tide of war shifted against Japan after its defeat in the Battle of Midway, Japan decreed that dramas promote its colonial policies in detail such as 'increase of production,' 'joining the Japanese Army' and 'Japan and Korea are one.'
Consequently, Park Youngho in his 1943 Waterfowl glorified the war through the depiction of the military volunteer system, and in the 1944 Narrow Door, he raised alarms about American and British Christianity and propagandized Japanese war victory. The 1945 Chorus of Stars comprehensively typified pro-Japanese purposive drama through its advocation of Japanese policies including 'Japan and Korea are one,' 'conversion of Korean surnames into Japanese names,' 'increase of production,' and 'military conscription.' Similarly, in Song Young's 1943 History, all characters were illustrated as people who renounced Chosun's tradition and accepted Japan's new colonial system. In the 1944 A Mountain Path Taken on a Moonlight Night dramatized Kim San and his daughter of sacrificing themselves to totalitarianism and volunteering themselves to a nurses' corp. In this manner, his works were transformed into pro-Japanese purposive dramas, thereby embracing the new Japanese system.
However, Park Youngho's 1945 The Death of Kim Okgyun dramatized a contemporary figure Kim Okgyun too realistically. As a result, regardless of the playwright's intent, the drama was prevented from production because it did not align with the Japanese policy 'Japan and Korea are one.' Song Young's Sinsaimdang on the surface idealized motherhood and womanhood, but also elicited a dual effect of inspiring national consciousness by expressing Korean traditional values, which could not be accepted in the Japanese-sponsored National Drama Competition.
Thus, over a period, their dramas demonstrated similarities in that their works evolved to embody pro-Japanese perspectives in their contents. However, regarding dramaturgy, the playwrights demonstrated distinctions in their styles.
First, in terms of the drama structure, Park Youngho preferred gradual climax and Song Young typically utilized the episodic structure. Park Youngho enjoyed fixed form of dramas, complying with the law of cause and effect in order to dramatize the farewell by departure or death. Song Young chose the episodic structure, in which several stories, and various time and space couldbe mixed, in order to describe a rendezvous after a long travel.
Second, regarding themes and the dramatization of characters, they shared a commonality in that they characters were pro-Japanese. However, upon close examination of their characters, it could be viewed that the writers, who advocated socialism in their early days, regarded the new Japanese system as an alternative tocapitalism.
Lastly, in terms of non-language factor, that is dramatic setting of audiovisual equipment, Park Youngho created an atmosphere through various kinds of sounds, in order to dramatize characters and aesthetically achieve artistic merit byeffectively utilizing drapes and lighting. However, audiovisual equipment was degraded to being used as mechanisms for promoting the war in his purposive dramas, as flags and torches in Waterfowl were merged together in their imagery, as well as stars and miners' cap lamps in Chorus of Stars.
On the other hand, Song Young presented great plays on the stage by often incorporating songs. Mountain Winds and A Mountain Path Taken on a Moonlight Night delighted the audience through the performance of folk songs. But History, music became a tool of propaganda by encouraging participation in the war as even children sang military songs in the play.
Park Youngho and Song Young, who were dominant playwrights, preserved their conscience as Koreans and writers at least until 1942 by creating anti-Japanese dramas, thereby expressing their resistance against Japanese colonialism. However, it is regrettable that since 1943 they had writtenpro-Japanese dramas accepting the new Japanese system or so-called a superior defense nation. Until recently, studies on their works were not actively pursued because their works were not found. Recently, however, some of their dramas which were performed during the latter period of Japanese colonialism days have been discovered. Therefore, I would like to contribute to the understanding of their works and of the period by delving into the examination of their newly discovered dramas.