@article{ART003340716},
author={YU YEONJU},
title={“Housewife Audiences” as Cultural Agents in 1980s Korean Theatre:Patrons, Critical Interpreters, and Creators},
journal={The Journal of Korean drama and theatre},
issn={1225-7729},
year={2026},
number={88},
pages={371-410},
doi={10.17938/tjkdat.2026..88.371}
TY - JOUR
AU - YU YEONJU
TI - “Housewife Audiences” as Cultural Agents in 1980s Korean Theatre:Patrons, Critical Interpreters, and Creators
JO - The Journal of Korean drama and theatre
PY - 2026
VL - null
IS - 88
PB - The Learned Society Of Korean Drama And Theatre
SP - 371
EP - 410
SN - 1225-7729
AB - This paper examines the formation and cultural practices of “housewife audiences” in 1980s Korean theatre, reconstructing a genealogy of female spectatorship and reexamining Korean theatre history from the perspective of spectators’ cultural agency. Existing scholarship has often regarded the 1986 production of The Woman Destroyed (Wigi-ui Yeoja) as the decisive moment in the emergence of housewife audiences. Through contemporary newspaper articles, reviews, and performance materials, however, this paper argues that housewife audiences had already been gradually forming since the late 1970s. Their emergence was closely linked to women’s cultural capacities that had been accumulated through the female college student audiences of the 1970s but rendered invisible through marriage, childbirth, and child-rearing within the process that Maria Mies conceptualizes as “housewifization.” In the 1980s, these capacities reemerged through theatrical spaces. Housewife audiences were not merely passive recipients of theatre but cultural agents who developed into patrons, critical interpreters, and creators, thereby helping to form the material and discursive foundations of the theatrical ecology. The audience group Chuimsae, Park Jeong-ja’s supporters’ association Kkotbongjihoe, and the housewife theatre troupe Dunguri demonstrate how housewives, who had been regarded as private consumers, formed public networks through the theatre and became agents of public discourse, patronage, and artistic creation. By foregrounding these practices, this paper argues that the cultural practices of female spectators were a crucial force in shaping the theatrical ecology of 1980s Korea.
KW - Cultural agency;Female spectatorship;Housewife audiences;Housewifization;;1980s Korean theatre
DO - 10.17938/tjkdat.2026..88.371
ER -
YU YEONJU. (2026). “Housewife Audiences” as Cultural Agents in 1980s Korean Theatre:Patrons, Critical Interpreters, and Creators. The Journal of Korean drama and theatre, 88, 371-410.
YU YEONJU. 2026, "“Housewife Audiences” as Cultural Agents in 1980s Korean Theatre:Patrons, Critical Interpreters, and Creators", The Journal of Korean drama and theatre, no.88, pp.371-410. Available from: doi:10.17938/tjkdat.2026..88.371
YU YEONJU "“Housewife Audiences” as Cultural Agents in 1980s Korean Theatre:Patrons, Critical Interpreters, and Creators" The Journal of Korean drama and theatre 88 pp.371-410 (2026) : 371.
YU YEONJU. “Housewife Audiences” as Cultural Agents in 1980s Korean Theatre:Patrons, Critical Interpreters, and Creators. 2026; 88 : 371-410. Available from: doi:10.17938/tjkdat.2026..88.371
YU YEONJU. "“Housewife Audiences” as Cultural Agents in 1980s Korean Theatre:Patrons, Critical Interpreters, and Creators" The Journal of Korean drama and theatre no.88(2026) : 371-410.doi: 10.17938/tjkdat.2026..88.371
YU YEONJU. “Housewife Audiences” as Cultural Agents in 1980s Korean Theatre:Patrons, Critical Interpreters, and Creators. The Journal of Korean drama and theatre, 88, 371-410. doi: 10.17938/tjkdat.2026..88.371
YU YEONJU. “Housewife Audiences” as Cultural Agents in 1980s Korean Theatre:Patrons, Critical Interpreters, and Creators. The Journal of Korean drama and theatre. 2026; 88 371-410. doi: 10.17938/tjkdat.2026..88.371
YU YEONJU. “Housewife Audiences” as Cultural Agents in 1980s Korean Theatre:Patrons, Critical Interpreters, and Creators. 2026; 88 : 371-410. Available from: doi:10.17938/tjkdat.2026..88.371
YU YEONJU. "“Housewife Audiences” as Cultural Agents in 1980s Korean Theatre:Patrons, Critical Interpreters, and Creators" The Journal of Korean drama and theatre no.88(2026) : 371-410.doi: 10.17938/tjkdat.2026..88.371
