토니 쿠쉬너(Tony Kushner)의 『캐롤라인, 혹은 변화』(Caroline, or Change)에 나타난 정치성

Abstract

Tony Kushner has emphasized that theater always has to have a vital relationship to history that examination of history has to be accredited a function in political theater and practiced to unearth history that change the world. As a playwright who has long paid attention to the political meaning in personal facets of life, Kushner pointed out the injustice and oppression of socially marginalized people, as well as the struggle between the oppressors and the oppressed in his recent musical Caroline, or Change. This play has been acclaimed as a major turn in the road for musical theater. This play explores the connection between the sexual, racial, religious, gender and political element in personal identity based on his early life experiences in Lake Charles, Louisiana. In the play Kushner explores continuous nature of oppression and inequality, as well as the perpetual possibility for change. Caroline, or Change combines the political and personal realities of a turbulent era in 1960s America, exploring the dilemmas of Caroline, an African American maid who works for Gellmans, American Jewish family. The play provides a small scale example of the rupturing of socio-economic terrain that was to occur 1960s. The play`s main story line centers on the relationship, which can be called a buddy fantasy, between motherless Noah, who is a son of the Jewish employer, and Caroline, who is always stoical, uncompromising and putting herself beyond dreams. They share this secret buddy fantasy on the underground in the family house, transcending racial, sexual, economic and class differences. Kushner employs this relationship to convert the typical terrain between white employer and black employee. It is assessed as a historical evidence, revealing the weakness and fragility of the bond between Noah and Caroline. Deconstruction of the buddy fantasy reveals the economic and political imbalance separating white and black America. In Caroline, or Change Kushner tries to connect small change with larger phenomena. This change metaphor triggers all of the incidents in the play and portrays relationship between people who are reluctant to accept change and the other group who holds on to the possibility of change for a better life. In the play Caroline`s resistance to change conflicts with her daughter Emmie, her friend Dotty and a progressive Jewish man Stopnik, who all support the ideas of Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. By presenting Caroline`s daughter Emmie, who represents the change of a new, younger generation, Kushner emphasizes the importance of solid identity through higher education, along with the solid ground of systematic innovation as Du Bois asserted. Kushner guides the audience to confront the transformative and irresistible power for the future. He asks questions to the audience on race, economics and the inevitability of change and show that art is not merely contemplation, it is also action.