The historical drama falls under a genre which is characterized to provide 'a forum for exchange' of the past and the present for the 'present' TV viewers. The past summoned into the present inevitably causes the distortion of 'realistic' past in the ...
The historical drama falls under a genre which is characterized to provide 'a forum for exchange' of the past and the present for the 'present' TV viewers. The past summoned into the present inevitably causes the distortion of 'realistic' past in the process of retrospection. As a result, the viewers experience the transformed past.
Typical historical dramas have featured, so far, only a single effect such as 'enlightenment'. This has just been an effort to cram the past criteria into the 'present' viewers by means of the historical teleplay. In contrast, the historical drama has developed into the stage where Multi-truth can be forged by the viewers since the post-modernistic historical view was introduced, One example which reflects the tendency is <Chuno> aired in 2010. It, by realizing this Multi-truth, created a new paradigm for historical drama, differentiating itself from the other works.
Due to the lack of firsthand material, enormous amount of historical facts and diverse historical point of views, systematic diachronic approach has not been made yet. This study defines the historical drama as a genre which consists of 1) setting 40~60 years backward from the air date, 2) reshaping of orthodox historical point of view, 3) dramatic events, based on cause and effect, creating a modern interpretation. This definition is meaningful in the sense that this study regards the nature of historical drama as a modern reinterpretation of past, categorizes, according to the theme and subject material, a variety of different names of historical drama into this nomenclature and sorts out the mess of "orthodox" or "fusion" historical drama. Each work, therefore, should be approached in the nature of the text.
According to the classification, about 330 pieces of historical teleplay have been produced from 1964 to 2010 in Korea. In 1960's, the literal and unofficial version of real historical story prevailed. The literal reproduction of real historical facts was regarded as meaningful interpretation of history. But in 1970's, most works of historical drama were produced to support the political needs under the state guidelines, creating the unique sequence, 'serial format of historical drama'. Modeling heroic deeds of historical great men and propagating its ideology were prevalent for the decade as the historical drama intended to 'educate' the public in the playwriter's unilateral point of view on the historical issues. Not the production itself but the political influence on the telecasting really mattered in 1980's, so surveying overall view of a dynasty was popular during this period. The 'enlightenment movement' by means of historical drama, also, continued during the decade. In 1990's, as the political detente removed the restriction on subject matters, the historical drama branched off in various forms. <Tears of Dragon> holds the important[index] position in the sense. In this drama, 'dramatic shifting' made it possible to represent the exact historical events in a very unique style. As the 2000's was looming up, the 'microscopic' historical drama, which deals with microscopic historical events, such as <Daejanggum> and <Damo>, appeared on TV, replacing the old 'absolute beliefs' with the 'relative' understanding of history.
The characteristics of the above mentioned historical drama are as follows. First, all historical dramas come within one of the categories: universality-oriented, particularity-oriented, and all round oriented works according to the structures using the dialectics. <Damo>, <Tears of Dragon> and <Daejanggum> belong to the first two types of works, and <Chuno> falls under the last one. Second, characters in the typical historical drama embody the symbolic persona who are entangled in the historical surroundings. Characters in this category, therefore, are not permitted the deep understandings of their own circumstances beyond their own period, whether they are in a particular historical era or in an imaginary historical scene. The character refers to the weak individual who cannot gain the comprehensive understanding of the world itself beyond his own provincial world. The third, the orthodox historical drama has one-dimensional structure. In this structure, only the playwriter's reconstruction of the past can serve as a subject matter per se. In regular sequence, this subject matter is transmitted to the viewers unilaterally As the structure narrows process of various historical situations down to a single subject matter, the viewers' interpretations are restricted to the text itself.
Breaking from the old prevailing trend, <Chuno> showed the prospect of new trend in the historical drama. First of all, <Chuno> presents a character who is free from the restriction of historical background. The characters exist in the 'universal' 17th century which does not belong to the specific period. They raise the questions toward the text and the world itself. <Chuno>, on one side, answers the problems of stratified society and humanity, on the other side, provides the open ended text with the narrative elements. This state of indeterminateness can be characterized as the field of 'Multi-truth' in which viewers can produce different meanings respectively, according to their own time and space.
The characters in <Chuno> are classified into 'in-history' and 'ex-history' persona. Whereas social protest, on the surface, is expressed through words of the former, the latter 'exists' by themselves regardless of the real scene and forms their identities independently. Above all, Lee Daekil's death is really significant in that he did not neglect the classism but bore the skepticism in mind towards his society, inviting the third meaning. The antagonism between the superficial meaning and in-depth meaning leaves room for a contemporary interpretation, making it possible to construct new meanings on the side of the viewers. The techniques such as the pinpoint image of the body, language and music effect are used to reinforce the superficial meaning. The pinpoint image shows serious damage of human body which symbolizes the distinction of an identity and a beginning of social protest. The contrast of language of 'yangban' class and the slang of lower class , verbal and body languages shows the stratified society in a symbolic way. Theme music of each character and Korean folk songs, also, reinforce the superficial meaning of the drama. To realize the open ended meaning ,on the other hand, it makes use of flashback. The highlighted leading actors and objects, point of sight and amount of information are controlled and are changing endlessly in each flashback in <Chuno>. Each flashback not only holds a meaning independently but, if it is connected with other flashbacks, it can form a new frame of reference of meanings. By connecting each flashback, the viewers can reconstruct the narratives into the unique and various meanings. It means a totally different historical view which the viewers' participation can guarantee.
This open structure can be valid on the ground that the viewer actively participates in the historical drama as a influential party. As the status of the viewer has changed from the passive role to the active one, the viewer can make a modern interpretation of the transfigured past. In particular, the narrative of <Chuno> makes it possible for the viewer to coin the enriched view through the analogy between the minutiae of the text itself and those of the milieu. The open structure in the diachronic flow derives its validity from rejecting the stereotyped point of views.
As a historical drama, <Chuno> is most successful in that it realizes the Multi-truth within the text. The persona, who can conflict with the world to which he/she belongs, stand for the characters in the text and the viewers outside. The viewers produce their own meaning by combining the pieces strewn about the text to their own will. As this open ended frame of reference is counted as a significant element in the change of historical view, <Chuno> foretells the considerable change in the historical drama.