ABSTRACT

In response to the Sewol Ferry disaster and mishandling of the South Korean government, Korean activists and artists mobilized collaboration with the victims’ families to produce activist theatre productions that center not only the trauma of those most affected by the disaster but also their lived experiences and wishes, especially those of the mothers. Furthermore, the performance community has come to include and represent the mothers not only as victims but as active participants whose grief is transmuted through performance into political activism. Combining tools of active viewing and participant observation, this article examines three of these works—Talking about Her (2016a) and VEGA (Jaguar 2016), which are performance pieces adapted from testimonies by the mothers, and Yellow Ribbon’s first performance, His and Her Closet (2016b). This article focuses on the ways these works, through utilizing the memories and testimonies of the mothers, have come to constitute a kind of collaborative public counter-memory against state cover-ups and unempathetic accounts, centering demands for change in commemoration practices and transforming the meaning of Sewol into a catalyst for political and social change.

摘要

为了应对世越号灾难和韩国政府的不当处理，韩国活动人士和艺术家动员与受害者家属合作，制作活动戏剧作品，不仅关注受灾难影响最严重的人的创伤，还关注他们的生活经历和经历。愿望，尤其是母亲们的愿望。此外，表演界不仅将母亲视为受害者，而且将其视为积极的参与者，她们的悲伤通过表演转化为政治活动。本文结合主动观看和参与观察的工具，研究了其中三部作品—— 《谈论她》（2016a）和《VEGA》（Jaguar 2016），这是根据母亲们的证言改编的表演作品，以及黄丝带的第一场表演《他和她的衣橱》（2016b）。本文重点关注这些工作的方式，通过利用母亲的记忆和证词，形成一种反对国家掩盖和冷漠叙述的协作性公共反记忆，集中要求改变纪念实践并改变纪念活动的方式。世越号的意义是政治和社会变革的催化剂。