The theatrical arts of Korea are largely divided into two categories. One is traditional theater and the other modern theater. While traditional theater was spontaneously produced and developed under the influence of Chinese drama, modern theater was ...
The theatrical arts of Korea are largely divided into two categories. One is traditional theater and the other modern theater. While traditional theater was spontaneously produced and developed under the influence of Chinese drama, modern theater was introduced by way of Japan and developed under the influence of Western and Japanese theaters.
The modern theater of Korea was developed in the early years of the present century when the country opened its doors to the Western world after many centuries as a "Hermit Kingdom." It is also divided into two categories-the Shin Pa drama developed in 1911 and the new drama in 1920. The Shin Pa drama was but an imitation of the Japanese Shin Pa drama, but the new drama was under strong influence of the realistic drama developed by Andre Antoine and Henrik Ibsen in Europe during the latter half of the 19th century, which drama found its way to Korea through Japan at the time.
It was Hyun Chul and Kim Wu-jin who first brought Western realistic drama to Korea in the new drama movement of the 1920's aimed at proper development in the country of theatrical art after the European drama of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, rejecting the Shin Pa drama which was but a copy of the low-grade melodrama of the Japanese Shin Pa drama. Yoo Chi-jin, alias Tongnang, opened up this new drama movement and he himself presented dramas in an effort to develop realistic drama in the 1930's.
Yoo Chi-jin was under stronger influence of Irish theater than anybody else at the time. Especially the theatrical ideas and techniques of John Millington Synge and Sean O'Casey had a great influence on his early works. Yoo said that he learned the idea and technique of drama from these two great Irish Playwrights. He was influenced by Synge's plot formation and nihilism, as we can see in his works, such as "A Donkey" and "A Cave." From O'Casey he learned theatrical techniques and the way of presenting characters.
But it is Yoo's originality that his characters are not resistant. Because Yoo attempted to present the life of his time in a condensed form of social realities at the time, his characters had no power to resist the outside pressure. As a result, unlike the strongly resistant characters of O'Casey, Yoo's characters are fragile and passive. This appears to have resulted from his weak personality as an artist, not from social situation and morality of the time. While O'Casey pursued what may be resistant realism, Yoo failed to have a keen sense of historical situation, while attempting to introduce the realistic drama of Europe mechanically and graphically to the country.
Accordingly, he simply represented realities mechanically and graphically in his works. So it can be said that he was more influenced by O'Casey's style of drama than his idea of drama.
In conclusion, Yoo Chi-jin was influenced by Synge and O'Casey of Ireland, a country which had a historical situation similar to that of Korea in Yoo's days. But he was unable to present the realities of his days elaborately on the stage, unlike Synge and O'Casey. So his works had the seed of realism but he failed to let this seed develop into flowers in his works.
This is the first part of a study of the influence of Euro-American theaters on the modern theater of Korea.