일제 말기 국민연극의 기호학적 고찰 - ‘송영’의 ‘연극경연대회’ 참가작을 중심으로

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the linguistic performance and communication structure of the national theater, focusing on the entries for ‘drama contest plays’ in the late Japanese colonial period. It also aims to examine the characteristics of national drama, through the semiotic framework, which was a particular mode of drama and ideology in 1940s’ Korea. Especially, three of Song Yeong’s dramas written in 1940s demonstrate that national drama aimed at external communication as well as internal communication of drama texts in its use of various supplementary texts. This paper focuses on the process of “preliminary screening,” which examined the drama texts for drama contest before they were put on stage. The scripts for preliminary screening were required to include synopsis and central theme as supplementary texts. The receiver of these supplementary texts were the subject of screening/censoring, the Japanese empire. 作意 and 梗槪 were the linguistic signs that were not configurated as paroles in the actual staging; but they took the form of communication by answering to the demand of Japanese empire and the censoring authority. Song Yeong experimented on a wide variety of supplementary texts from the central theme, synopsis, commentary, stage directions, Korean footnotes to double language inscription. These are the traces that he was unconsciously negotiating with the authorities in order to communicate. The national drama that was the ‘substance’ and ‘ideology’ demanded by the imperial power under the new regime was not addressed to the contemporary Korean audience, but was ultimately addressed to the Japanese empire and the censoring authority. Its communication process confirms that this was the essence of national drama.