• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.123-153
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• 2020

As the importance of documented fact has weakened in historical dramas, the combination with other genres has become prominent. By reviewing the way romance is dealt with in historical dramas, this research examines how the properties of historical events adopted by historical dramas are related to the motif of love, and how the narrative of love and romance contributes to the historical effects, with a focus on the television drama Mr. Sunshine. Mr. Sunshine is the first historical drama written by Kim Eun-sook, combining deliberately rearranged history with the writer's unique grammar of romance. The failed resistance movement of the righteous army in the drama is matched with the love that cannot be achieved based on self-negation. The drama, which deals with the tyranny of Japanese imperialism and the independence of Joseon, fictionalizes key characters and events, transforming the desire of love into the passion of patriotism. Romance in Mr. Sunshine serves as a catalyst for emphasizing the tragedy of historical events and reconstitutes cultural memories. In historical dramas, the fictional plot of romance leads viewers to reflect on human life in history that flows from the past to the future. How does an individual's inner feelings contribute to the historical representation? This research is significant as it is the first attempt to examine the relationship between historical drama and romance in various ways.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.368-377
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• 2020

In this paper, the transmission and the phases of the memories in the novels dealing with Vietnam War have been studied. As a research method, Aleida Assmann's memory theory which plays a role in culturoloy theory is utilized. This study shows firstly that the others' voices excluded from the official memories of Vietnam War have emerged. Vietnam War novels released after 1990s actively reflecting the others' voices transmitted fresh the cultural memories. As the stories of civilian massacre, defoliant victims, and children of mixed bloods, Lai Daihan excluded from the official memories have emerged as a main them in the Vietnam War novels, they have become resistant memories. Existence and Formality, a Vietnam War novel by Bang Hyeonsuk brings up how to remember Vietnam War. His another novel, Time to Eat Lobster shows that without the fundamental retrospect and introspection of Vietnam War, Korea can't help but have the identity of America. Secondly, this paper shows that the tragedy of Vietnam War remains as a trauma that human bodies remember. White War by Ahn Jeonghyo shows that the memory moves back to the past in the process of struggle. In the novel, Slow Bullet by Lee Daehwan the phases of demage from defoliants lead to the family's tragedy. The Red Ao Dai by O Hyeonmi shows how a Korean-Vietnamese overcomes negation of his father and win his identity. In A Sad Song in Saigon shows that a mixed blood, Sairang who suffered from the confusion of his identity and his story fell down to a romance novel because of the weakness of narrative.