• 한국연극학
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• 제48호
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• pp.289-332
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• 2012

In this paper, based on the theory of performance studies and community-based theatre, I venture to explicate the socio-political significance of director Yim Jin-Taek's community-based performance called 'madanggut', which is heavily based on elements of indigenous culture. Yim's madanggut utilizes elements of indigenous cultures and searches for 'the Korean ethnic (arche)type' as 'the ideal Korean type' or 'genuine Korean-ness' for the reconstruction of 'the Korean ethnic community.' This paper interrogates the major task of Yim Jin-Taek's madanggut, which ideologically promulgates the idea of ethnocentric patriarchy supported by the traditional (mainly Confucianist) notion of 'community' - inquiring if this type of theatre can provide useful and practical prospects for imagining a more democratic and plural civilian society in Korea today, when the interaction of globalization, nationalism, regionalism, and localism simultaneously impact our everyday life and cultural identification. Regarding the recent global phenomenon of the resurgence of nationalism, I looked at madanggut's use of symbolic resources from the past for imaginative communal bonding as a nation. But, the claimed homogeneity of the national past by means of 'nation conflation' of different social groups is an illusionary conceptualization, and the national historiography silences memories of the marginalized groups and denies their histories. It is certain that in Korea nationalism has historically performed an important function during the colonization and democratization period. Nevertheless, as Yim's Nokdukkot realized, it cannot be overlooked that as a representative of 'the Korean ethnic community,' 'the protecting man/the sacrificial woman' is contradictory to the plural and lateral thinking of participatory democracy in community-building. It is time to think about a new political language that relates individuals to the community and nation. 'The ethnic type' cannot represent the whole nation and the members of the nation should be the examples of the community they belong to for a more democratic society. I have selected Yim's several community-based works mainly from the 1970s to the 1980s since the works provide grounding images, symbols, metaphors, and allegories pertinent to discussing how 'the Korean ethnic community' has been narrativized through the performances of madanggut during the turbulent epoch of globalization. I hope that this paper presents Yim's grounded aesthetics of community-based theatre with fully contoured critical views and ideas.