방송극작가 한운사의 ‘통일연습시리즈’ 고찰1 - ‘반전(反戰)드라마’를 중심으로 -

Abstract

Un-sa Han, a TV playwright, was a harbinger of broadcasting literature focused on anti-war dramas portraying the tragedy of the Korean War without being preoccupied with anticommunism. Accordingly, he plays a very important role in studies on the earlier stage and the formative stage of broadcast plays in Korea. In order to figure out Un-sa Han's world of broadcast plays, it is necessary to study Unification Practice Series as named by the playwright. In this regard, the study has conducted analyses on the actual circumstances of the Korean War and the playwright's perspectives on ‘war’ with regard to such radio dramas as <Until I Die>, <Under the Sky>, and <The North and the South> included in the Unification Practice Series. As a result, it has been found that the Unification Practice Series by Un-sa Han consisted of anti-war dramas aimed at unification of the nation when anti-communist dramas prevailed. Of the three dramas, two dramas except for <Until I Die> had a tragic ending where a main character died, and it reflects the playwright's intention to symbolically portray the tragedy of the Korean War. The tragic ending has stemmed from the playwright's perception on such a dreadful situation that it is hard to expect a happy ending even in a fictional world of the Korean War. However, this is not the whole story. Un-sa Han thought that the unification of the nation that can restore the homogeneity of the two Koreas going beyond ideology is a way to cure a scar of the Korean War. The playwright's intention to induce the general public to have a critical reflection on the war by realistically recording the tragedy of the war has led to a tragic ending. It seems clear that Un-sa Han's Unification Practice Series that recorded high program listener ratings and that gained popularity when they were reproduced as films and TV dramas induced many to have a critical reflection on political situations where the division of the nation was fixated. However, the study has failed to figure out the significance of the Unification Practice Series in terms of the history of broadcast plays due to a lack of secondary materials that can back up the result of analyses on primary materials. It needs to be resolved through subsequent studies after analyses on the remaining works that this study has not covered among the Unification Practice Series that consists of 12 works.