The period during which professional female Nongak troupes were formed spans from the late 1950s to the late 1970s, encompassing roughly 20 years of history. Research on these female Nongak troupes has been conducted from various perspectives, includi...
The period during which professional female Nongak troupes were formed spans from the late 1950s to the late 1970s, encompassing roughly 20 years of history. Research on these female Nongak troupes has been conducted from various perspectives, including historical development, aspects of popular and entertainment Nongak, gender perspectives, and music and performance analysis. However, there has been a lack of focused research on the lives and artistic forms of the female Nongak artists, who are the main subjects forming these troupes. Studies that view female Nongak troupes as "alternatives to male Nongak" or "commodification through femininity" tend to otherize female Nongak artists. This phenomenon results in the artistic skills of female Nongak artists, taught in a vertical relationship with male Nongak artists, being interpreted in a confined manner, while their life processes and intrinsic value are only partially understood.
The presence of women in these female Nongak troupes grew as artists and wage laborers within the industrial capitalist entertainment production system. Despite this, female Nongak artists have internalized and expressed their art deeply through their subjective experiences. Thus, this thesis examines the transitions of female Nongak from the 1960s to the 1970s and unfolds the artistic practices they developed based on their experiences within the troupes through oral history. Furthermore, it aims to understand the process of their growth in communal society, the connection of joy and affect through art embodied in their bodies, and their transition from female Nongak troupe members to independent artists and subjects of their own art and life, through the concepts of "structures of feeling" and "affect."
Through this research, the following facts can be identified:
First, the history of female Nongak troupes from the 1960s to the 1970s can be divided into the formation, popularization, reorganization, and decline phases. Within this history, female Nongak artists were seen as laborers working for wages within the controlled structure of the community. However, after the dissolution of the troupes, they utilized the artistic skills they had learned to perform independently through education, performances, and competitions. Additionally, it is confirmed that the artistic skills of female Nongak artists have been passed down and continued in contemporary Honam Udo Nongak.
Second, although they lived within a communal society, it is evident that female Nongak artists continued independent group activities through competition rather than achieving a sense of solidarity. Moreover, the objectives of the troupes and their members differed, with the troupes aiming for capital accumulation and the members pursuing artistic activities. Hence, the continuous labor for capital accumulation diminished their desire for art. Conversely, some members left the troupes to pursue their artistic goals independently, indicating a move away from the "labor market" of the troupes to freely seek their own art.
Third, examining the artistic practices of female Nongak artists reveals new aspects such as self-sustaining activities outside the troupes, efforts to pass on their art through their status, and researching female Nongak from the position of a performer. They recreated the artistic abilities they learned within the controlled educational system of the troupes, expressing their artistic desires in various ways.
Lastly, through affect theory, it became possible to reconsider the reasons behind the actions of female Nongak artists. Growing under various social oppressions and controls, they lived through the stimulus of art. Furthermore, the desire to become artists and the formation of artistic values through various conflicts made art an essential component of their lives, creating the formula “Art = Me.”