『아메리칸 환갑』에 나타난 디아스포라의 의미 변화 연구

Abstract

Today, Korean American playwrights actively participate in enriching cultural and social diversity of the North American countries such as USA and Canada. One of their favorite motifs in their plays is the diasporic experience of the Koean immigrants into the New Continent. American Hwangap by Lloyd Suh deals with Chun Min Seok--a Korean man who emigrates to the States, returns to Korea, and then goes back to the States again. After three migrations, he finally decides that the home in the USA is the place he really belongs to. Witnessing the process while his children as well as Chun suffer from various diasporic hardships leads one to realize that the meaning of diaspora has been changing from that of the past. If the original meaning of diaspora is the people or experiences the immigrants have to face in alien places as a result of political scapegoats, modern diaspora is more often than not created by those who are willing to emigrate to new places for economic reasons. Therefore, American Hwangap shows the extended and transformative meaning of diaspora.