아일랜드 극작가가 한국 극작가에 미친 영향 = An Irish Dramatist's Influence on a Korean Dramatist: A Comparative Study of Sean O'Casey and Yoo Chi Jin

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Yoo Chi Jin was influenced by Sean O'Casey. As O'Casey portrayed the tragic lives of Dublin people during the 1920's revolutionary period for independence in his 'Dublin Trilogy', The Shadow of A Gunman, Juno and the Paycock, and The Plough and the Stars, Yoo Chi Jin dramatized the miseries of Korean peasants who were tormented under the rule of Japanese colonization in his three peasant plays, A Hut, A Landscape of a Vilage with a Willow, and A Cow.
Yoo Chi Jin believed that his duty was to dramatize the actual situation realistically and to criticize Japan. In his plays Yoo Chi Jin succeeded in dramatizing the lives of Korean peasants during the 1930's realistically but did not succeed in discovering the vitality because the image of Korean peasants from his point of view was weak and pessimistic. He believed that the meaning of realism was to copy the actual situation, and hence only portrayed a passive and pessimistic image of Korean peasants. Moreover, as O'Casey Yoo Chi Jin tried to show the daily lives of Korean peasants objectively like O'Casey. He tried not to reveal his message directly through characters, but we can easily see the anger of the Yoo Chi Jin's characters against Japan. Yoo Chi Jin could not completely be free from the duty to criticize Japan. This duty restricted his imagination and detracted from his plays. Yoo Chi Jin also used tragicomic techniques like O'Casey. In his plays he wanted do reveal the nihilism of the Koreans, that is, tears mixed with laughter, just as O'Casey showed the sorrow of Irish people in a tragicomic way. Yoo Chi Jin's comic characters are not very successful but there are many comic situations in his plays, and through those comic characters we come to feel Koreans' sense of humor.
Yoo Chi Jin's three peasant plays are not without faults, but he succeeded in dramatizing the Korean peasants of the 1930's in a realistic way. He used O'Casey's influence in an original way, treating the Korean peasant society and Korean peasants in their own unique situation. He did not merely imitate O'Casey's materials and characters, but developed his own images from Korean peasant society. His characters use realistic and earthy language expressions. We should consider Yoo Chi Jin as the most important realistic dramatist who portrayed the lives of the Korean peasants under the rule of Japanese colonization. Even though he was influenced by O;Casey, he had his own originality and did much more than merely imitate.