극중극의 특성 및 그 의미에 대한 연구

Abstract

This work analyzes the characteristics and meaning of the play within a play introduced in many plays from the Baroque period to the modern times. Theatrum Mundi is the view of the world during the Baroque period, which consists of the belief that the world is a stage, and the human being is an actor, who walks on the stage, i.e. the world. We classified into three structures according to the way in which the inner play is inserted into the frame play: a perfect insertion, a parallel insertion, and a fragmented insertion. In addition, the problem of space and time and the dualities of characters, actors, and the audience arising from the duality of structure are examined in the work. The function of the play within a play is different in each play. The function recognized first is the decorative function which entertains the audience by its spectacular features without affecting the progress of the frame play. The second is the instrumental function which helps the orderly progress of the frame play. The third is the disapproving function which consists of making the frame play more realistic through its non-realistic features. The fourth and the last is the function of metatheatre. In the Baroque period, the transitory nature of life is compared to the theatre. The reason that contemporary play writers are interested in the play within a play is that our external reality is often false and the inner feelings of human being are often hidden. As the theatre is an art of disguise, we also live with face masks on. The play within a play is an excellent device that helps expose the similarities between the theatre and the life. Furthermore, the play within a play is the outcome of the self-consciousness of the writers who want to reveal to the audience the mechanism of theatre. Because of the influence of the postmodernism, the art has shown interest in the art itself, and as a consequence the play within a play can be viewed as the post-modern aesthetics because it has shown interest in the theatre itself. In short, the frequent appearances of the play within a play in modern drama have a root not only to the inner acknowledgement that the day-to-day life of a human being is often hypocritical and disguised, but also to the influence of the postmodernism that is more focused on 'how' to show than 'what' to show in the art.