1910년대 부산 극장가 문화 연구 - 연속활극 열풍과 부산 극장가의 식민지 근대성을 중심으로-

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to consider how the colonial modernity was substantialized, particularly based on the Busan theater district in the 1910s which is one of the modern urban culture treasures. In the circumstances where the American film industry was expanded in the 1910s, Hollywood silent movies entered into Joseon and the fever of action movie series was spreading in the entire area of Joseon including Kyungsung. The Busan theater district strongly showed cultural hybridism due to its geographical characteristic as a border area. This cultural hybridism continued even after action movie series were brought in. Entering into Joseon in 1916, “The Broken Coin”, a Hollywood movie, was released and very successful in the movie theater named Haeng Gwan. For the silent movie “The Broken Coin”, the role of narrator was magnified. In Kyungsung, there were two narrators for the audience: a Korean and a Japanese. In Busan, however, there is no sign of Korean narrator working and the then Korean audience is presumed to have enjoyed movies based on the performance by a Japanese narrator. In general, narrators played a role to induce the audience’s emotions by expressing the original text in their own fashion. It is presumed that the narration or description of a Japanese narrator was significantly different from that of a Korean narrator, in terms of cultural translation. Moreover, the then Korean audience in Busan was not able to enjoy such theater culture as that of Kyungsung where Koreans gathered and enjoyed movies in a kindred language space. This can be deemed the coloniality of the Busan theater district behind the fever of action movie series in the 1910s.