Presentation Schedule
Postcolonialism and Korean Shakespeare (109741)
Session Chair: Nuning Yanti Damayanti
Saturday, 11 July 2026 16:30
Session: Session 5
Room: UCL Torrington, G20 (Ground Floor)
Presentation Type:Oral Presentation
In 2010, Lingui Yang described scholars of Shakespeare studies in Asia as treating the whole region as a single ‘Orientalist ideological block’ in which the governing methodology is based on the situation in India, ‘the representative party [which] seems to deserve the most attention for its colonial history.’ While the field has certainly improved in the 16 years since Yang’s paper, his claim remains partly true. In South Korea’s case, some scholars continue to apply postcolonial theory to Shakespeare studies, treating the country as just another member of the ‘Orientalist ideological block’ – despite the fact that Korea never experienced European or American imperial rule. Taking a theoretical approach inspired by Chen Kuan-hsing’s Asia as Method, this paper explores how to study Korean Shakespeare without misrepresenting its history and context. I argue that prevailing modes of postcolonial theory, predicated as they are on the notion of Western dominance, require recalibration to properly understand Shakespeare’s place in South Korea. Korea is not the colony of a Western nation and never was; furthermore, Shakespeare’s entry into the country was a result of Japanese, not Western, imperialism. As such, a rash application of postcolonial theory leads to misunderstandings and inaccurate claims. Instead, a Korea-centric methodology modelled on Chen’s work makes it possible to understand Shakespeare’s place in Korea without Western-centrism distorting our understanding of the field.
Authors:
Scott Shepherd, Chongshin University, South Korea
About the Presenter(s)
Dr Scott Shepherd is Assistant Professor of English in the Hokma Liberal Arts Center at Chongshin University in Seoul
See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule
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