Recasting the National Motherhood: Transactions of Western Feminisms in Korean Theatre

Abstract

The image of the National Motherhood is the potent cultural code for Koreans. The word ‘Feminism’ in the Korean context is identified as a system of ideas originating from the West. What happens when these two disparate cultural/historical impulses meet at the intersection of modern Korean theatre? This study examines the cultural transfer of Western feminisms and feminist plays in the Korean theatre from the 1920s, when Ibsen's play A Doll's House was first introduced to Korea, to the present. More specifically, it analyses six Western feminist plays such as Nell Dunn's Steaming and Marsha Norman's 'Night, Mother, by focusing on how the Korean women's movement and modern Korean drama movement intersect with each other in terms of historical and cultural background; how these two historical impulses interact with Western feminist plays in terms of the intentions and reception of such plays in the Korean theatre arena, and how the image of the National Motherhood, the potent cultural code for Koreans, intervenes in this process.