이 연구는 한국의 근대 대중의 형성과정을 조선후기에 부상, 지배적으로 된 세속적이고 도시적인 통속문화 그리고 19세기 말 문호개방 이후의 대중문화와의 관련 속에서 고찰하였다. 통속문화에서 대중문화로의 전환은 곧 통속적 취향이 식민적 근대화 과정에서 문화적 지배력과 시민권을 잃고 국부화, 특수화되어가는 과정이며 이러한 문화전환과 대중의 내적 속성변화는 근대화에 따른 보편적 문화변동과정으로 보이지만 실제는 그보다 복잡하고 다층적인 요인들의 절합이 작용했다. 통속문화가 대중문화로 대체, 전환되는 과정은 식민지 지배세력의 교체를 통해 지배를 완성하고자 한 일제와 식민지의 신흥 엘리트층으로 급부상한 근대 지식층의 적극적 개입에 의해 역동적으로 전개되었다. 대중문화로의 전환과 이행은 불확실하고 모호한 근대성을 기준으로 이뤄진 선택의 과정이었고 유동적이고 양가적이며 불안정한 집합적 욕망의 소산이었다.
This study attempts to reconstitute a trajectory of formation and reformation of masses in Korea since the 18th century when a certain popular cultural forms emerged and became dominant. Aesthetics and attributes of newly emerged popular culture in the 18th century is obviously different from those of cultural fonns that had been affiliated with both high and low classes, that is, court culture and folk culture. The characteristics of the new popular culture are that it is the middle gentry class that created, sponsored, consumed and circulated it over Korean society, that is a secularized fonn of the high culture of the noble class, and that appealed to inhabitants living in urban area by its modernity and urbanity. Bourgeois, petit-bourgeois, gentry class, merchants, self-employed businesses, laymen and even noble class had enjoyed the newly emerged popular culture which reflects cultural aesthetics and daily lives of urbanites. I argue that they must be discussed as a prototype modern masses and then got being replaced, transformed and marginal with the introduction of mass culture since the late 19th century. Mass cultural fonns such as film, theatre, variety show, circus, acrobats, popular song, and modern style dance were introduced and soon occupied cultural spaces of the colonial cities. While mass cultural genres and products were staged on theatres, the old-type popular culture genres became marginal. At the same time, the early masses was attacked and denounced as having vulgar and mean taste which was originated from the old regime. Not only Japanese but nationalist intellectuals learned and educated in modern knowledge deprived the early masses of their cultural citizenship and went further to stigmatize them as useless and immoral debauchee. Meanwhile, modern intellectuals represented foreign films, modern sports, public parks, modern amusements such as cafe, bar and theatre as constituencies of modern civilization. I focused on theatres as a modern space in which films, variety shows and performances, plays and even speeches by public figures were acted out. Through consuming cultural artifacts performed on stage of theatres, Korean masses could be reconstituted and transformed in ways to be modernized. Intellectuals actively intervened in a process of cultural transformation by writing essays and reports on films, theatres, and urban modernities in general, largely thanks to that they worked for Journalism in a status of temporary contributor as well as regular journalist. It became obvious that those who had not been furnished with modern knowledge, education, experiences and competence of languages like Japanese and English could not consume nor enjoy talkie movies, modern plays, and diverse theatrical shows. They had kept their longtime cultural taste of the early popular culture until the late 1930s. I tried to show that transition to the modern cannot be said as a change toward getting universality. Rather it is a movement directed by collective desires of a group of peoples in power in the historical moment, when modernity was sought in a state of vagueness, ambiguity and uncertainty that are characteristic in a society in transition under colonial condition.
1. 근대의 문화변화와 대중의 구성 2. 조선후기 통속문화와 통속대중의 형성 3. 변경(邊境)의 근대성과 ‘구경‘하는 군중 4. 통속문화와 통속대중에 대한 공격 5. 근대 그리고 문명의 공간과 장치 : 극장관객과 영화대중의 형성 6. 식민지의 문화소비 대중 : 계층적 분화와 혼성 7. 근대 문화의 정전화 : 지식인의 개입과 소비실천 8. 문화의 전환과 통속대중의 해체 9. 식민지 문화전환의 정치학 참고문헌