Performing Korea

This book offers an exploration of the intersection of Korean theatre practice with Western literary theatre. Gangnam Style, K-Pop, the Korean Wave: who hasn’t heard of these recent Korean phenomena? Having spent two years in Korea as a theatrical and cultural ‘tourist’, Patrice Pavis was granted an unparalleled look at contemporary Korean culture. As well as analyzing these pop culture mainstays, however, he also discovered many uniquely Korean jewels of contemporary art and performance.

Examining topics including contemporary dance, puppets, installations, modernized pansori, ‘Koreanized’ productions of European Classics and K-pop and its parody, this book provides a framework for an intercultural and globalized approach to Korean theatre. With the first three chapters of the book outlining methodology, the remaining chapters test – often deconstructing and transforming in the process – this framework, using focused case studies to introduce the reader to the cultural and artistic world of a nation with an increasing international presence in theatre and the arts alike.

Patrice Pavis is Professor in the School of Art of the University of Kent, UK. Formerly a professor in Paris and Seoul, he has taught at universities across the globe. Publications include Theatre at the crossroads of Culture (1992), Dictionary of the Theatre (1999), the Intercultural Performance Reader, (1996), Contemporary Mise en Scène (2012) and the Dictionary of Performance and Contemporary Theatre (2016).

Source: publisher’s website

Contents

Theater and Theater Research in Korea and Elsewhere: Where Are We, Where Are We Going?
Globalization in a Few Korean Performances
Mise en Scène Made in Korea
A Few Contemporary French and Korean Playwrights: A Comparison
Questions to the Past: The Puppet Play Batyr Mamai by Kim Kwang Lim
I, Na Hyeseok, the Undesirable: A Stage Requiem by Kim Minseung
A Few Productions by Kim Hyun-Tak: Death of a Salesman, Medea on Media, The Maids
On Lee Young-Seok’s Production of Orwell’s Coming Up for Air
Is Modernized Pansori Political? On Lee Jaram’s Ukchuk-Ga (Mother Courage and her Children)
Woyzeck as Dance Theater: A Comparison Between Im Do-Wan and Josef Nadj
A Seoul Song for Hong Sehee: On the Dance Solo A Song for You
Self-Portrait: Three Stages of Life. On a Solo by Nam Jeong-ho
Parody in K-pop: An Analysis of the Video Nobody, by JYP, with the Wonder Girls
Flowers and Tears. On Park Eunyoung’s Installation and Multimedia Theater
On Falling
Can a Foreigner Watch the Performance of Others?