메타서사와 관객의 각성 - 쉬쉬팝의 <유서>

Abstract

This article aims to show that Testament by She She Pop is a piece of meta-narrative, and as a meta-narrative, it successfully induces audience awakening. Meta-narrative is a self-referential process in which the realistic representation of the plot is eliminated. Meta-narrative can be defined as a story about a well-known story and as a story commenting on the narrative activity. Testament has these two characteristics. It is also a documentary drama in which the real fathers of the actor/actress appear as a real father and act halfly as actors on the stage. Firstly, Testament is a story about King Lear, and as such, it comments on Lear in comparison with the fathers in Testament. The story begins with fathers who are old and retiring, and the old and retiring fathers are analogous to Lear, who is old and trying to divide his kingdom among his three daughters. Also, Lear’s demand for 100 knights is compared with many books of one of the fathers who is old and who has to live with his daughter. Many books that fill all the empty space of the daughter’s house are the same as Lear’s demand for 100 knights to be housed at Goneril’s house. Through this, the audience comes to ‘newly understand’ Lear’s position(father’s side) and his daughter’s position. Secondly, Testament is a documentary drama in which the real fathers of the daughter-actresses appear as actors and as persons living in the real world. The presence of ‘real’ fathers show meta-process in a way that it weakens the dramatic illusion. The meta-narrative that demands the audience recognition of the performance and reality induces the awakening of the audience because, through the real fathers on the stage, the audience members come to substitute themselves in the position of the real fathers and daughters on the stage. Thirdly, meta-narrative reveals how the performance should be interpreted by the audience. A daughter tells a father, “we are making a scenario, we are testing a scenario”, which signifies that what happens on the stage is only a scenario. The performance makes it clear that the performance is not the real world so that the audience needs to be distanced from the scenario. The audience comes to recognize that the performance does not demand the audience empathy by this distance. Instead, it demands the reflection of the audience on the situation. In these three ways, Testament successfully functions as a meta-narrative that induces a new reflection on the performance and reality.