Embodiments of Korean Mask Dance (T'alch'um) from the 1960s to the 1980s: Traversing National Identity, Subjectivity, Gender Binary

Abstract

This study examines embodiments of the traditional Korean mask dance, t'alch'um, in the post-Korean War period. The military government and university student activists in South Korea utilized the t'alch'um as a pivotal vehicle for establishing "Korean" identity and subjectivity during a period of nation-building, from the 1960s to the 1980s. However, they each used different methods and pursued different goals. The government established the Cultural Heritage Protection System in 1962 with the goal of safeguarding the original form of the mask dance. One impact of the government's system was to consolidate the power of the dictatorship. In contrast, university student activists recognized the necessity of preserving tradition and establishing an identity and subjectivity for the public. They created their own theater, called madanggŭk, by connecting the principle of satire from the mask dance with socio-political and economic issues that resulted from the dictatorship's oppressive policies. Through madanggŭks, the activists sought to promote "Koreanness" that originated from minjung (common people) and one important outcome was their expression of resistance against the dictatorship. Assessing these two reconstituting activities in the post-war era, the main purpose of this dissertation is to shine a critical spotlight on how the reconstitutions of dances past were differently appropriated and the impacts they exerted on national identity and subjectivity. Although one of the goals of some developing reconstitutions of the mask dance was to challenge previous conservative and hierarchical ideologies, vestiges of 19th-century Korean Confucian patriarchy remained active in social and cultural conventions. This study analyzes how gender binaries in hierarchical relationships were circulated in reconstitutions of the t'alch'um. I examine how patriarchal family structures, sexual division of labor, and stereotyped images of women are depicted in androcentric storylines of the mask dance and madanggŭk. I also analyze how vestiges of Korean Confucian patriarchy influenced relationships between men and women in performing groups.This project employed several methodologies: oral interviews; analysis and interpretation of archival materials and secondary literature; and movement analysis of the t'alch'um and madanggŭk as captured in photographs. While in South Korea from 2011 to 2013, I gathered written and visual documents and conducted interviews with professional dancers and scholars. Few moving image records exist for period reconstitutions of the mask dance and madanggŭk. Limited numbers of still pictures are available for t'alch'um and madanggŭk productions in this period. However, using photos, I studied various performing factors: what body parts performers primarily utilized, how performance environments appeared, how performers located themselves in relation to spectators, and what costumes performers wore.These methods enable me to argue that neither the Korean government reconstitutions nor university student performances of madanggŭk escaped from the reach of Confucian philosophy, sovereign-centered system, and hierarchy, even though they each pursued democratic revolution from the 1960s to the 1980s. This study approaches the two reconstitutions with perspectives gleaned from several disciplines as it addresses cultural production in connection with politics, industrialization, and gender role issues.