Nomads still: Zainichi-Koreans and contemporary Japanese theatre.

摘要

This study examines the theatrical work of the Korean Diaspora in Japan after WWII. This group is referred to here as "Zainichi-Koreans," evoking their hybrid, nomadic status in Japan. Theatre by " Zainichi-Koreans" embodies the representational strategies they have used since the end of WWII. These representational strategies are shaped by the hegemonic Japanese, the "Zainichi-Korean" diasporic imaginary, cultural, national and ethnic identifications. Korean diasporic theatre, ideologies of the Japanese nation-state, and tradition are three topics addressed in this dissertation. I utilize theories that apply to modern Japanese theatre, intercultural theatre, and neo- and/or post-coloniality. I will employ both Japanese and Western formulations. These include Kristeva on the abject, Omi and Winant's definition of "race," Gilroy "Against Race," Bharucha on the secular, Lazarus and Harootunian on modernity, Roach on surrogation, Sakabe on reflexivity, Tsurumi on tenko (recantation), and Kayama on Japanese "petit-nationalism." Korean diasporic theatre must be considered in the context of contemporary Japanese theatre. Thus, I look at the work of Hirata Oriza and Kaneshita Tatsuo and how it defines a "Japanese standard" as a reflection of growing Japanese neo-nationalism. I show how neo-nationalism was incipient in most post-WWII Japanese theatre and began to expand in the 1960s. I look at the work of Kara Juro from the 1960s and 1970s for manifestations of neo-nationalism, and "Zainichi-Koreans" erasure. I examine the representational strategies of contemporary " Zainichi-Korean" playwrights and directors such as Tsuka Kohei, Yu Miri, Chong Wishin and Kim Sujin. Their work has been a constant effort to interact with a culture that marginalizes them, finding ways to gain a measure of agency as "Zainichi-Koreans." Most recently, the theatre troupe Shinjuku Ryozanpaku, founded by Chong and Kim, uses a mobile tent theatre to embody the nomadic, abject status of "Zainichi-Koreans." That tent also embodies the shift in the Korean diasporic imaginary from a longing for a unified Korean homeland to one of a nomadic condition. The conclusion considers how Korean diasporic theatre may be taking the imaginary of a nomadic condition beyond the borders of Japan, thus creating potentially greater resistance to the hegemonic Japanese ideology of a homogeneous nation-state.