• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.59-67
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• 2019

This article examines how Brecht's Gestus is borrowed and transformed into the film. I examined the critical debates on the film's use of Brecht and the style of Brecht's acting adopted in radical experimental films and Hollywood films. In addition, through the case of Korean film actor/ress, I sought to apply the Brechtian theory. First, despite the criticism that the film's acceptance of Brecht is overly formal and mechanical, film theory and practice reflect Brecht's ideas. In particular, regardless of the socio-political situation of Brecht's day, his Gestus is suitable and useful for film acting. Brecht's thought was realized by technological innovations such as montage and computer special effects, and above all, the social attitude of the actor was popularized through the education of the audience. Second, his strategy on performance is no longer unfamiliar, and goes beyond the boundaries of contradictory daily life and art, and becomes the pleasure of popular film. Although the intentions of naturalism and anti-naturalism in acting arts are different, the process and effects look at the same point. Third, through the case of Korean film actor/ress as an attempt of popular understanding about Brecht strategy, I could confirm the possibility of searching identity of Korean film actor/ress.

• Journal of Korean Theatre Studies Association
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• no.49
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• pp.133-169
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• 2013

Reexamining Brecht's theoretical hypotheses in terms of cognitive science, this essay arrived at several temporary interpretations. Cognitive science implies that empathy can precede the rational understanding in Verfremdungseffekt. The spectator tends to simulate the unfamiliar incident and character and feels the consequential embodied emotion that leads to the cognitive understanding. The similar situation can be found in social gestus. According to cognitive science, gesture(social gestus) is simulated in the mirror-neuron of spectator, arousing consequently the embodied emotion that triggers the succeeding understanding. The spectator apts to experience and feel physically the moving gesture before decoding it as a social signification. Brecht's intention that attempts to reveal the duality of actor and character by eliminating the fourth wall is negated by cognitive science. According to the theory of conceptual blending, the spectator under the eliminated fourth wall mixes actor and character, and simulates this blending image so that he experiences it imaginatively. As such, another kind of illusion can be formed when a fourth wall is collapsed. Meanwhile, the critical thinking of spectator Brecht wanted can be hard to occur during the performance. It is necessary for the spectator to recollect the bygone dialogue and action in terms of social context as if he presses the pause, stopping the playback while watching a play in video. In this respect the social meaning Brecht intended can be achieved more effectively by the stop motion like tableau. It would not only give the time for the spectator to consider the implied social signification, but also make him possible to decode a semiotic meaning as if interpreting a still picture. Or it can be delivered by the dialogue that expresses the playwright's critical judgement. In this case, the subject of critical thinking is not the spectator but the author. The alternative explanation that the cognitive science suggests illuminates theoretically the reasons why Brecht's theory fails to be realized in practice. In a sense, Brecht's theory is nothing but a theoretical hypothesis. It takes the premise that the emotion hinders the rational thinking, understanding emotion and reason oppositively like Plato. This assumption is negated easily by the recent cognitive science that sees the reason as a by-product of physical experience including emotion. The rational understanding, in this sense, begins from the embodied emotion. As such the cognitive science denies the dichotomy of emotion and reason that Brecht adopted. The theoretical hypothesis of cognitive science makes us recognize again the importance of bodily experience in theatre. In theatre the spectator tends to experience physically before decoding the intellectual meaning. The spectator Brecht wanted, therefore, is far from the reality. The spectator usually experiences and reacts physically before decoding the meaning critically. Thus Brecht's intention can be realized by the embodied emotion resulted from simulation. This tentative interpretation suggests that we need to pay more attention to the empirical study of spectatorship, not remaining in a speculative study.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.161-180
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to define Juan Mayorga's play Hamelin as a Post-Epic Theatre and to study the practical directing technique for Hamelin as a Post-Epic Theatre. Post-Epic Theatre, which appeared after the Post-drama, has the purpose of presenting social issues, communicating interactively between the actors and the audience, and making the audience think about the issues presented by the techniques of immersion and alienation. To this end, after examining the theoretical background of the Post-Epic Theatre, the characteristics of the Post-Epic Theatre of Hamelin were identified and based on these features, '1. Building a visual image based on a Cubistic multifocal concept' and '2. The concept of directing was derived from reinforcing Meta-drama through role-playing'. Next, the actual directing technique was discussed, focusing on the chain action of immersion and alienation that occurs in the form of communication between actors and audiences. '1. Presenting the characteristics of the work through Post-Epic Theatre scenography', '2. Co-existence of actors and characters', '3. Building and utilizing body-centered gestus' are them. As a result, demanding an active attitude from the audience, various experiences such as critical thinking of the audience, strengthening the characteristics of post-epic dramas, and active meaning creation were made possible.