프로연극운동의 방향 전환, 극단 신건설

Abstract

The theatre Shingeonseol, which is the keyword of the ‘secret society the singeonseol affair’ that brought about the dissolution of KAPF(Korea Artista Proleta Federatio), is the most important theater group in the proletarian literature and theater history in the era of Japanese occupation of Korea. The theatre Shingeonseol was planned to be an unaffiliated organization which is not under direct control of KAPF. Its activities were developed in two ways, one is legitimate theater performance and the other one is illegal activity, i.e. site-based operation of the theater group. It identified the possibility of legitimate theater performance by performing <Im Westen nichts Neues>. However, legitimate theater performance reveals limitation because the political performativity of the proletarian theater is blocked by censorship. Rather, the theatrical and literary significance of this theater group is in promoting illegal activities. In particular, the fact that ‘secret society the Singeonseol affair’ was occurred by ‘Geumsan Reading Club’ ― a secret organization of Shingeonseol ― is an important evidence indicating that the theatre promoted illegal activities. Some concrete aspects of ille-gal theater popularization are seen in the activities of Shingeonseol, such as repertoire of popular entertainment formats, the possible presence of mobile theater group, and organizing theater clubs in plants and schools. These points show that the theatre accommodated both of the two results derived by theater popularization discussion in the 1930s. Thus, theater Shingeonseol presented a direction of the proletarian theater movement after 1932 by attempting to develop legitimate and illegal theater movement in parallel, and should be evaluated as the theater group that showed the strategic change in proletarian theatrical movement.