윤대성 희곡과 허무의식

Abstract

In this paper I studied the nihilistic consciousness of a playwright Yoon Daesung's plays. I considered that as a writer's nihilistic consciousness expressed his/her extreme despair about society and history, human being and world, it was activated as an important indicator which understand works and writer's world. Yoon's nihilistic consciousness was established by accepting the influence of western modern philosophy including existentialism in 1950-60s impoverished and absurd modern Korean society. In his earliest play Departure as a young writer in twenties who actively accepted the knowledge of art and philosophy, his philosophical thinking and problematic consciousness were melted. The aspects of its nihilism were varied: The discrepancy of human being and his/her goal's absence, frustration of love and desire and human being's disappearance, historical stalemate, doubt and negation of God. Though it is one act play, it is the first challenging problematic play which a young writer in twenties regarded human being, world, and history as nihil. Servants' record is the play which he dramatized the ruled people's in Koryo dynasty. He overthrew optimism of real historical fact, that is the ruled people's raising to higher status in Koryo dynasty, created a tragic historical play and emphasized the nihilistic consciousness. He made Chorus group who informed theme enter the stage, spoke aphorism like contradictory term of eastern thinking, and emphasized historical nihilism. This play's world is circular historical one like Departure. Although historical nihilism of it can be seen as discontent and criticism about political reality which suppressed the ruled people in the early 1960-70s, it also suggest the limitation of writer's consciousness which didn't progress much more by resulting in nihil. Hi, honey! is the play that Yoon in sixties made a self-identical character enter the play, and retrospect on the universal issues such as solitude and freedom of human being, nihil of life etc. He concentrated not the aged's issues as social phenomena which begin to appear before and after 2000 but the existence of the elderly. This play has the aspects very different from the nihilistic world created young Yoon in twenties: love, aging, suicide, the elderly's issues. Compared with Departure in his twenties, the former concreted human daily life more lively than the latter. But the patriarchal and egocentristic consciousness of an old man in middle class, ant the passive attitude will and passion of life were absent weaken the meaning and universality of suicide by nihil. It means that Yoon in sixties stands near his main character Dogko.