Introduction: Contradictory Tides between the National and the Global

Abstract

The introductory chapter provides a historical overview of how the concept of Western cultural hegemony, as an epitome of the modern, has wrestled simultaneously with demands for modernization (globalization) and efforts to reclaim and justify the value of tradition and national identity in the Korean context. This socio-historical background — which hinges on questions of how the Korean concept of Western (modern) theatre was shaped and forged by various domestic discourses about modernization and nationalism at pivotal moments in modern history — is considered in terms of how the desire to modernize has always interacted and negotiated with the need to retain and promote traditional ways and identity.