Abstract

In this paper, I aim to get a view of Oh Tae-seok newly in the aspect of 'history' rather than 'tradition'. Oh have been writing plays related historical fact or individuals since 1970s. There are three major streams in his historical plays as followings. First : the plays which treat directly his auto-biographic affairs including his experience of the Korean War in his childhood age. Second : the plays which overlap the private 'memories' and public 'history' by the background of dynasty era in the history. Third : the plays that describe the issues of the age of consisting modern nation by the historical individuals of enlightening age or right after liberation from Japan. The first and second stream types were written during 1970s to early 1990s and the third type is being written after late 1990s. In the mid 1990s, Oh's view point to the history has been changed to public 'history' dominated by enlightening and national discours from private experiences and memories. Oh's interests to history was began to trauma of the Korean War in his childhood age. In 1970s and 1980s of military regime and strong nationalism ideology era, Oh depict victims sacrificed by the unaimed madness and violence in the history. In his old age, since mid 1990s, he showed the enlightening position to the misleading history. But the problem was that another violence for revenge was justified by emphasizing victims's sufferings in history. It shows the irony of history that Oh, who himself was a victim of violence in the Korean War, admitted the assailant's position and the violence to the other weak persons.