식민지 엘리트의 ‘상상적 근대’: ‘최남주’의 활동을 중심으로 (Imaginary Modernity of a Cultural Elite: Choi Namju in Colonial Korea)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국극예술학회
· 수록지 정보 : 한국극예술연구 / 49호 / 15 ~ 48페이지
· 저자명 : 위경혜

초록

본 연구는 일제강점기 문화 엘리트 최남주의 활동을 재구성하여 역사적 과정으로서 식민지 근대 문화의 역동성을 파악하고 있다. 최남주는 1920년대 식민지 ‘지방’ 도시 광주에서 계몽 수단으로서 근대 문화를 자각하고 경성의 영화계에 입문한다. 조선영화주식회사와 출판사 학예사 그리고 연극단체 조선무대 결성 등 문화 전반에 걸친 최남주의 ‘조선성(朝鮮性)’ 추구는 민족(national)과 로컬(local) 그리고 에스닉(ethnic)의 자장(磁場) 안에서 요동치고 있었다. 하지만 제국 질서 아래 식민지 엘리트라는 상황은 근대 문화 기획의 양가성을 드러낼 수밖에 없었다.
일제강점기 최남주의 문화 기획이 제기한 지역성과 세계성 문제는 해방 이후 신생국가 건설과 연관된 점에서, 최남주 활동의 역사적 의의를 그의 동인(同人)들의 활동을 통해 살펴보았다. 식민지 엘리트 최남주의 ‘조선적인’ 문화 생산 활동은 냉전체제 반공 이념에 근거한 국가 건설과 보편적 세계 모델로서 제시된 할리우드에 대한 욕망으로 이어졌다. 최남주가 상상하고 욕망한 근대 문화 기획은 식민과 탈식민 그리고 냉전을 가로지르며 전개되었다.

영어초록

This study examines colonial modern cultural development as a historical process by investigating a local elite, Choi Namju , who was born at Gwangju in 1905 and worked as a movie entrepreneur at Gyeongseong from 1930 to 1942. I have explored three dimensions of Choi Namju’ career. First, I have examined the time he spent at Gwangju and Gyeongseong, including his participation in theater activities and the networking of human resources through play activities at Gwangju. Second, I have looked at Choi’s establishment of the “Chosen Movie Corporation” at Gyeongseong in 1937 and have analyzed the movies made in the company. Third, I have studied the foundation in 1938 of Hwakyesa, a book publisher for Korean literatures. I have also analyzed Choi’s influence on filmmaking in post liberation Korea by researching the career of Lee Jaemyeong, who had worked in the corporation as a film planner from 1937 to 1942.
As a part of my study, I have analyzed written documents published by a film studies organization, oral testimonies from people involved in making movies, and daily newspapers dating to the colonial and postcolonial periods at Gyeongseong and Gwangju respectively.
I would like to conclude this study as follows: First, the local elite Choi Namju and his colleagues at Gwangju recognized play as an important means of enlightening local people about modern culture in 1920s. Choi’s career as a stage actor in the local area influenced him to use films for promoting national consciousness.
Second, “Chosen Movie Corporation” was fashioned along the lines of the Hollywood studio system, and was seen as a means of realizing dreams of making it big in the acting field. However, considering that a necessary step in developing the colonial Korean film industry was not “making more films”, but “distributing more films to more market places,” the advent of the company was impertinent at that time. Moreover, the three films made by the corporation had similar characteristics.
All the movies displayed ambivalent attitudes towards “the national” and “Chosen-like,” which stood at the intersection of Japanese imperialism and the perceptions of film-related Korean personalities, including the local elite Choi Namju.
Third, considering that Lee Jaemyeong built his career as a film-making planner in the anticommunist postliberation - social environment, Choi Namju left his footprints on the efforts to push Korean film into a leading position in the global film industry, with the help of Hollywood. That indeed was the experience of modernity and the development of modern culture in Korea via the West, especially the United States.
Finally, the local elite Choi Namju was not just a film entrepreneur or film businessperson, but a representative figure of modern culture, which made the transition from the colonial to the postcolonial period at a historical moment in Korean film history.

참고자료

· 없음