함세덕과 싱(J. M. Synge)의 희곡에 나타난 바다와 죽음의 의미 :「바다로 가는 기사들」, 「산허구리」, 「무의도기행」을 중심으로

Abstract

This paper addresses the meaning of sea and death on Ham Sae-Deok and John Millington Synge’s play. The colonial Korean playwrights acknowledged Synge as an Irish playwright who vividly depicts the Irish peasants’ life. Like Synge, Ham tries to capture the reality of colonial Korea farmers’ sufferings and dramatize it, which became a prototype of Korean drama at that time. Synge’s play, "Riders to the Sea", describes the deaths of eight fishermen from a family. Their deaths depend on geographical factors of the Aran Islands, the west coast of Ireland. Fishermen try to maintain their livelihood by raising livestock and selling it to the land but fail to survive in the end. Synge depicts the Aran Islands as the best-preserved place of the Celts in this play. The death scenes in the colonial Korean fishing village are portrayed in Ham’s play, "Sanheoguri"(산허구리) and "Mooudo Gihang"(舞衣島紀行). These tragedies are caused by Japanese colonialism and empirical capitalism. "Sanheoguri"(산허구리) describes the pain that village farmers have to undergo, which is caused by Japan’s exploitation. Also, "Mooudo Gihang"(舞衣島紀行) tells the death of Chunmyung, a young Korean fishermen who is victim of capitalist competition. I will explore how the death scene shown in Riders to the Sea symbolizes Irish people’s inevitable fate. Then, I will examine how Ham’s two plays reflect on Korean fishermen’s sufferings, in comparison to "Riders to the Sea".