역사드라마 '화정'과 역사적 상상력-17세기 정명공주의 삶을 재현하는 방식들-

Abstract

There are many ways to represent the life of Jeongmyeong, Princess of Joseon in the 17th century, and mass media such as historical dramas and books are among them. This article treats them as ‘historical imagination’, comparing the ‘dramatic imagination’ of the TV historical drama <Hwajeong> with the ‘scholarly imagination’ represented in the popular history book Hwajeong, Princess Jeongmyeong by historian Shin Myeong-ho. By critically analyzing the two different ways of reconstructing Princess Jeongmyeong and her life, we show why her original voice was silenced, despite her extant writing of ‘Hwajeong’ and the popular consumption of her biography. The historical drama <Hwajeong> is the work of Kim Yi-young, a well-known drama writer who wrote popular dramas such as <Isan> and <Dongi>. Due to the limited historical records related to Princess Jeongmyeong, the writer adopted an imaginative narrative that uses the historical context as the basic background while filling in the rest with her historical imagination. Thus, <Hwajeong> is a genre called ‘fusion historical drama’ among historical dramas. It raises such universal questions as: What is politics? What should our attitude be toward power? It thereby resurrects Princess Jeongyeong of the 17th century for the audiences of Korean society in the 21st century to answer the questions through her voice. As women’s political power in Korean society has increased since 2000, the main character of the drama, Princess Jeongmyeong is represented as a woman who calls for correct politics. Ironically, however, the drama was aired when criticism of Park Geun-hye, the first woman president in Korea, was at its height due to the disastrous Sewol Ferry accident. This was the biggest reason that the voice of Princess Jeongmyeong in the drama went unheard. Historian Shin Myeong-ho's book, Hwa jeong, Princess Jeongmyeong, tried to represent the life of Princess Jeongmyeong by using scholarly imagination from the Princess Jeongmyeong’s point of view. He tried to depict her life based on historical records that were recognized as ‘informal’ as well as ‘official history’ from his expertise of royal culture. However, it was still difficult to hear the voice of Princess Jeongmyeong, who had lived for 83 years, because he focused on the main events of political history. Unlike the work of Natalie Zemon Davis, who reconstructed the daily life of French farmers in the 16th century through her book The Return of MartinGuere, his attempt did not lead to a rich recreation of history, limiting his representation of the life of Princess Jeongmyeong.