The Character as Genre and History as Image of Female Gugguek

여성국극의 장르적 성격과 이미지로서의 역사

This research established that the two characteristics of Femail Gugguek were explored on the character as genre and the nationalism discourse. This research also included how to encounter the characteristic of Female Gugguek as a popular entertainment with the social context at the time and how to re-produce the social ideology. The 'historical nationalism narrative' piercing Female Gugguek had the close relation with the nation/state discourse of the time. The history reproduced by Female Gugguek was not real. It was the imagined past, the history as image. The Female Gugguek was a genre which typically showed how to intermediate fantasy, ideology and narrative. The happy-endings with the victory of male hero, the narrative pattern on overcoming national crisis, the narrative emphasizing the glorious past and the unification of nation, all these were projected the discourse on nationalistic ideology and nation/state-making in 1950's. The Utopian desire of Female Guggeuk imagining the glorious past and strong nation was the fantasy which concealed the contradiction in real life and the national identity damaged by colonial experience, division of territory, governance by U.S. Military Government and the Korean War. The Female Guggeuk was doing well, because it had amusement. Futhermore, imagination of glorious past and strong state/nation of Female Guggeuk satisfied the public's desire of escapism and wish to establish their position and identity in the rapid social-economic changes. However, Female Guggeuk repeatedly produced the never-changing characters, narrative pattern and conservative world-view. Thus, it became regarded as immature and obsolete thing in late 1950's. Female Guggeuk, which kept re-producing the retrogressive image of the past without modern viewpoint and interpretation, was not sensitive about change of time and trend of the people. Consequently, it was pushed out of people's major interest.