Yun, Hunam (2010) Appropriations of Irish drama by modern Korean nationalist theatre : a focus on the influence of Sean O’Casey in a colonial context. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

My thesis explores how a translated author on the periphery of the host culture’s
translated repertoire can be at once subversive and innovative on the colonial scene,
using as an example the case of Sean O’Casey in colonial Korea. It explores the
importation of Irish drama in modern Korean theatre during the colonial period and
examines the appropriations of O’Casey’s plays by a central Korean playwright, Yu
Chi-jin, in creating his own plays. Under Japanese colonial rule in the early twentieth
century, intellectuals perceived the supreme task for the Korean people to be the
recovery of national sovereignty and independence. The modern Korean theatre
movement which rose among Korean intellectuals and dramatists during the colonial
period was to play a major part in this task. The ultimate goal of this movement was
to establish a modern national theatre promoting Korean culture and educating the
people, thereby recovering national independence. As their modernised dramatic
polysystem was still "young", Korean intellectuals and dramatists who were
involved in the theatre movement had to borrow dramatic models from other
countries. One of the models they chose was Irish playwrights, especially those who
were involved in the Irish dramatic movement. They published or staged the works
of W.B. Yeats, Lord Dunsany [Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett], Augusta
Gregory, J.M. Synge, St. J. Ervine, T.C. Murray and Sean O'Casey. Although
O'Casey was considered an important dramatist in the Irish dramatic movement, he
was a playwright on the periphery in the list of translated Irish dramatists in Korea
due to the colonisers’ censorship. However, he remained as a subversive and
innovative playwright on the colonial scene by virtue of being appropriated by Yu
Chi-jin who used O’Casey’s plays as models when creating his own works. In
discussing the subject matter of my thesis, I use Even Zohar’s polysystems theory as
a starting point in looking at ideological issues surrounding translation and extend
the discussion to offer a postcolonial perspective. While most translation in a
colonial context was considered as "an expression of the cultural power of the
colonisers," my thesis shifts the focus to translation as an expression of the cultural
power of the colonised. I explore how the colonised uses another colonised culture to
subvert the colonisers’ power.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The Theater P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	O'Casey, Sean, 1880-1964 -- Criticism and interpretation, Irish drama -- Korea -- History -- 20th century, Irish drama -- Translations into Korean, Theater -- Korea -- History -- 20th century, Korean drama -- Colonial influence
Official Date:	October 2010
Dates:	Date Event October 2010 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Long, Lynne
Extent:	vi, 364 p.
Language:	eng

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