• Journal of Korean Theatre Studies Association
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• no.52
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• pp.229-270
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• 2014

Ostermeier's Hamlet has no particular contemporary reinterpretation. Alternately devoting to show retrospect in illusion and existence through revenging actions. However, Shakespeare's metaphorical and implicative language is dissipated and the style of the play is not an illusive space-time, but a tragic theatrical production that uses rough language to express the depth of the story. The Perfomance of Hamlet is a sensuous jumble up of a diverse range of mass media. The double roles that the actors carry out give an affect of isolation between the audience and the play itself showing both empathy and liberty. Ostermeier's Hamlet distinctively shows a post-modern performance through the prominent elements of dirt, the use of mixed genre, theatric emphasis, making an image and the fulfillment of acting. Nonetheless, Ostermeier's performance stays off the point on the breakup strategy of the post-modern drama without suspending the narrative of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Besides aiming to show a performance centered by the imagery of physical expression, his performance shows New Realism in the 1960's, showing everyday life. Ostermeier thinks, that theatre helps give contemporary people an accurate reality check in the constant unstable periods of time. Therefore, Hamlet shows post-modern physical expression and outspoken dramaturgy using the effects of mass media in New Realism without breaking up realistic narration. With being the aberration of the Castle Helsingor, the main character Hamlet, expresses lunacy and can be considered as metaphor for young adults whom are broken down and isolated from the economic system. He is a substitute for those who experience agony, anger, torment, etc. and other suppressed emotions in everyday life. With the method of direction in the portrayal of Hamlet show signs of succession in the abundant popularization of the classics by communicating with the audience by following the trend of modern mass media and audio-visual perception; emphasizing the point of the philosophical topic 'life and death,' 'life and theatre,' and 'illusion and reality.'

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.69-91
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• 2012

Marina Carr's By the Bog of Cats.... (1998) is the last play of the trilogy of "the midlands plays" which can be regarded as her re-writing of both Euripides' Medea and J. M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World by resetting the two plays in the midlands of contemporary Ireland. Carr intends to courageously explore into the dangerous liminal space, i.e., the middle between the past and the present, the high Greek and the Irish folk culture, dealing with the ghosts of the dead writers for her own Irish feminist theatre. Thus, in the middle Carr can build a new Irish theatre by minorating and abjecting the Greek tragedy and subverting and expanding Synge's theatre of grotesque realism. This paper attempts to read By the Bog of Cats... as Carr's final project of exploration into the midland of Ireland to establish a new Irish feminist theatre and at the same time a new Irish folk theatre. By focusing on her strategies of minoration and subversion through grotesque imagery and carnival rituals it argues that Carr put Hester's becoming-ghost in the middle, the bog of the cats as both grave and womb, waiting for the birth of a new Irish people. And it emphasizes that the ghost of Hester, merging with the ghosts of her mother and daughter by the bog of cats will haunt the official society as a threatening abjection, challenging the restoration of the social order.

• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
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• no.6
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• pp.101-121
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• 2008

An artist, Oh Yun(1946~86)'s theory of people's art during his final period is summed up in his essay 'Expansion of Artistic Imagination and World' (1985). Emphasizing the mystic and traditional characteristics of Oh Yun's artistic oeuvre during his final period, some critics focus on Oh Yun's experience of medical treatment and shamanistic custom at Jin Do island, and his belief in Jeung San Do, the dao of Jeung-san, the Ruler of the Universe. However, they forget the practical intention and implication of his theory of art during his final period, which aimed to overcome the contradiction of revelation itself. Oh Yun's essay criticized the loss of artistic imagination and the ignorance of traditional culture that resulted from the elevation of science to a religion, and insisted that the stereotyped idealism, scientism and elitism in art should be overcome in order to recover the full reality in realism and to continue traditional cultures. The essay is comprised of 18 paragraphs. Oh Yun criticized monochromatic art, conceptual art, hyper-realistic art, objet d'art, and neo-dadaist art, saying that they were simply mechanical forms of modern art derived from scientism and a fetishistic lens culture. In addition, he criticized naturalism in art, which had continued as a tendency in the development of western art, for the same reason. He pointed out that even the world of realism had been diminished by elite stereotypes and diagrams. He declared the need to overcome the imitation of shells or stereotyped propaganda, and recover full realism, which seems to have started with a reflective examination of current problems in 'Reality and Utterance', in which he participated. Especially, he thought that universality and the extension of full realism could be achieved by building on the views of traditional cultures, which is meaningful. This logic is same as the theory of epic theatre that Bertolt Brecht(1898~1956) has developed under the ancient Greek masque and Pieter Bruegel the Elder(1525~69)'s story-like picture style. The universality of realism and the extension of acquisition to include incantation art, rather than move toward incantation art, is what Oh Yun intended to propose in 'Artistic Imagination'. This attitude is same as Bertoh Brecht's aesthetic viewpoint in the 1930s. But regrettably, Oh Yun's style wording, which seems covert and far-sighted, is often misunderstood as 'mysticism'. In the flow of people's art in the 1980s, Oh Yun was a traditionalist in a narrow sense, and an realist in a broad sense. However, his critical mind, which comprehends tradition and reality, was attempting to expand universality and extend full realism, and this attempt found many sympathizers and had an influence on the next generation of people's artists, such as "Levee" which is field-centered, to which we should pay attention. This means that while their works thought about 'tradition', we should be careful not to connect them with 'aesthetic conservatism' or 'classical art'. This is the why the meaning of Oh Yun's theory of art during his final period should be closely examined again.

• Journal of Korean Theatre Studies Association
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• no.40
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• pp.307-344
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• 2010

Cultural Studies built on the critical mind of New Left exposes the relationship between culture and power, and investigates how this relationship develops the cultural convention. It has achieved the new perspective that could make us to think culture and art in terms of political correctness. However, the critical voices against the theoretical premises of Cultural Studies have been increased as its heyday in 1980s was nearly over. For instance, Terry Eagleton, a former Marxist literary critic, declared in 2003 that the golden age of cultural theory is long past. This essay, therefore, intends to show the weak foundations on which the approaches of cultural studies to theatre rest and to clarify the general problem of their introduction to theatre studies. The approach of cultural studies to theatre takes the form of 'top-down inquiry' as it applies a theory to a particular play or historical period. In other word, from the theory the writer moves to the particular case. The result is not an inquiry but rather a demonstration. This circularity can destroy the point of serious intellectual investigation as the theory dictates answers. The goal-oriented narrow viewpoint as a logical consequence of 'top-down inquiry' makes the researcher to favor the plays or the parts of a play that are proper to test a theory. As a result it loses the fair judgment on the artistic value of a play, and brings about the misinterpretation. The interpreter-oriented reading is the other defect of cultural studies as it disregards the inherent meaning of the text, distorting a play. The approach of cultural studies also consists of a conventionality as it arrives at a stereotyped interpretation by using certain conventions of reasoning and rhetoric. The cultural theories are fundamentally the 'outside theories' that seek to explain not theatre but the very broad features of society and politics. Consequently their application to theatre risks the destructive criticism, disregarding the inherent experience of theatre. Most of, if not all, cultural theories, furthermore, are proven to be lack of empirical basis. The alternative method to them is a 'cognitive science' that proves scientifically our mind being influenced by bodily experience. The application of cultural materialism to Shakespeare's is one of the cases that reveal the limits of cultural studies. Jonathan Dollimore and Water Cohen provide a kind of 'canonical study' in this application that is imitated by the succeeding researchers. As a result the interpretation of has been flooded with repetitive critical remarks, revealing the problem of 'top-down inquiry' and conventional reasoning. Cultural Studies is antipodal to theatre in some respect. It is interested chiefly in the social and political reality while theatre aims to create the fiction world. The theatre studies, therefore, may have to risk the danger of destroying its own base when it adopts cultural studies uncritically. The different stance between theatre and cultural theories also occurs from the opposition of humanism vs. antihumanism. We have to introduce cultural theories selectively and properly not to destroy the inherent experience and domain of theatre.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.165-175
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• 2011

The purpose of this research is to investigate the possibility of creating new theatrical contents by performance anthropological approach. Today's traditional performing arts are historically descended and developed in the forms of Ahk, Hee, and Geuk. Among those, Dongrae-yaru is a traditional mask dance, handed down in Dongrae, Pusan and appointed as the 18th intangible cultural asset. Its performance is carried out in the juxtaposition of Ahk, Hee, and Geuk. Korean theatre in the 21st century seems going back to realism after going through post-modern cultural phenomenons. However, the quest for alternative theatre is raised higher than ever. As a part of this strive, this paper asserts the traditional performing arts should be investigated as an alternative and new theatrical form. Among those traditional performing arts, Dongrae-yaru is selected for its well balanced combination of Ahk, Hee, and Geuk. The study examines in depth how each element of Ahk, Hee, and Geuk, they are expressed in forms of folk music, refined dance, jest, satire, wit. Its investigation on the stage adaptation provides the possibility for the new style and codification as the new theatre contents.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.7
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• pp.185-191
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• 2018

The digital technologies brought a structural transformation to cinema, have lead a change in the way of existence of an assembly of images called cinema, and have shared expression methods with new-media. To look into how in terms of cinema style of the film era and the digital era are different, this article will focus on the matter of 'indexicality.' From the point of view of perceptive realism the discourses on digital image deconstruct the dichotomy between illusionism and classical realism. Therefore the actuality of an image does not depend on only indexicality but has much to do with how the viewers fundamentally perceive the image. In this age of digital cinema it does not matter to distinct a composite-image from a reality-image. This article inquires the relation of indexicality, the world and digital images in digital cinema on the level of reception, and reconsider in terms of image production.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.395-403
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• 2017

Narrators used to take an important role in the theatre of ancient Greece. They gave the audience an important information, explained the situations and conflicts between characters by talking to the audience directly. But in the realism play in the 20th century, which is represented as the 'fourth wall,' anything that can interrupt commitments of the audience such as a narrator, was excluded. However the two representative playwright in the 20th century, Thorton Wilder and Arthur Miller took narrators in their plays, Our Town and A View form the Bridge. This study shows why they adopted narrators in their play, which was unusual at that time and how this form of narrator affects to the meaning of the plays.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.117-130
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• 2020

The Golden Dragon is a work that reminds us of the tragic illusion of globalization through the story of Asian workers' lives in Berlin, a strange city. Also, the post-epic nature of the play requires the audience to see it in a new way, more different than before. In Korea, there are theoretical studies on the post-epic theatre, but there is little research on specific acting approaches based on practical production process. Therefore, I first analyze the post-epic characteristics of The Golden Dragon in order to present specific acting approaches. As a result, it would be confirmed that body-centered acting approaches were required in the post-epic theatre to play more different roles than in the realism play. Thus, Laban movement Analysis(LMA) of Rudolf von Laban is applied so that internal impulses could be naturally induced through the utilization of the body. Of the four categories of motion(BESS), Laban seeks to look at the body-centered acting approaches through the effort. Finally, it must be confirmed through the actual production process that Laban's theory of motion could be used as a body-centered acting approach to creating the role of post-epic theatre.

• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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• no.20
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• pp.31-61
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• 2010

This thesis proposes to explore the theatre aesthetics of North-Korea during after the Liberation. From now South-Korean theorists have provided the theatre aesthetics of North-Korea to South-Korea, so we can say that it lacks of an equity. For example, South-theorists have said that North-Korean theatre only emphasized politics and propaganda, they have had not any aesthetics in performance. So this study focused on North-Korean critics and records for fairness and as a result something new is founded. The best theatres in North-Korea were some works which contains natural and proper lines to character, well-expressed inner desires of characters, realistic acting and stage design, and realistic life of working class. Of course they should reflect communist ideology and policy, but more important is that it did not mean everything in North-Korea. So we can say that it is fact that North-Korea should reflect their policy, which does not mean lack of aesthetics of performance. North-Korea had an obvious point of view for theatre, and they made an effort to realistic lines, movements and stage. During right after the Liberation, North Korea sought to find an answer for 'realization of true life', and sought to eliminate Japanese acting style in theatre. Concluded theatre aesthetics of North-Korea during right after the Liberation is realistic acting and directing style.

• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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• no.39
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• pp.609-635
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• 2019

This study analyzed five official entries in the 3rd Cheong Kong Festival contest and analyzed the patterns of teen audience empathy. The tools used for this analysis were 'characters, acting, background and theme'. Firstly, characters were mostly teenagers and out-of-school teenagers, but there were other performances that focused on the relationship between teenagers and adults or focused on the youth, which the teen audience preferred. And they preferred realism acting to emotional acting and preferred musical acting to realism acting. In addition, the background of the events covered in the performance was evaluated to be like this: the closer the audience was to the youth, the higher the audience sympathized with the performance, and the closer the subject matter was to the youth's interest, the more positive it received. In summing up the opinions of the youth evaluation team, the first audience-participating Sinpa Theater, "Mr. X" was evaluated to expand the scope of teenagers to 20s and to show the negative and heavy reality as fun and beneficial one. Secondly, when it comes to non-prejudiced youth theatre "The Turtle", which have a high level of empathy, it was evaluated to shape the prejudice about others through the symbol of 'bag'. Thirdly, regarding the time-traveling retro-style youth theatre of the 'a jam-packed Bus', it was evaluated to be a well-made retro-style youth theatre. Regarding the 'Lunar Eclipse', which showed the aesthetic of the relationship, scenes were evaluated to be built with omission and restraint. Regarding "B Officer on and Love Letter", it was evaluated to be adapted to a musical from Hyun Jingun's novel, which was released 100 years ago. Lastly, the performance desired by the youth evaluation team was a performance with a high level of 'sympathy' and 'education'. In other words, they preferred performances that empathize with the emotions and thoughts of teenagers, and on the other hand, they wanted to see performances that allowed them to see the world broadly outside their own worlds. If youth theater is created by referring to the evaluation of youth as it is in this study, the audience will be more sympathetic to performances.