1930년대 조선영화에서 나타난 음악과 민족성의 의미 ― 영화 ≪춘향전≫과 ≪심청≫을 중심으로

Abstract

Based on the analyses of films produced during the colonial era of Chosun, this study examines how the mass media renders traditions and identity of a culture in modern society where the power of media has become the most dominant force defining and disseminating information. Since the 1920s, the longing of general public for popular culture was growing rapidly into the Korean society. Under the strict Japanese colonial rule and oppression which forbade political gatherings and conventions, culture was the only means through which Chosun’s national identity was sought and preserved by its people. Films or movies were no longer a mere instrument of pleasure for the Chosun people, but they were the way of reinstating the value of Chosun’s sovereignty and identity as a nation. Chunhyangjeon(춘향전) and Shimcheungjeon(심청전) are some examples of the Korean classical literature adapted into movies that demonstrate the nation’s strong reminiscences of past gaiety. Popular culture in the 1930s was meaningful to the Koreans so as to be marked as “The Revival of Traditions.” Such changes in the public sentiment and attitude towards the Korean popular art and culture are important insomuch as they came about amid the Japanese attempts to institute the Korean culture as a mere rural amusement. Criticisms of the past colonial studies about the films produced during this period, which claim that these films were government-controlled propagandas used for the sake of cultural assimilation, need reassessment, if not nullified as a whole. As such, this paper scrutinizes and analyzes how the mass media could work as a means of strengthening national identity as well as a reinforcement of cultural values and traditions in light of the Korean traditional music used in the making of those films.