During the Japanese occupation of Korea, young intellectuals like Se-dŏk Ham, eager to transform the traditional Korean ways, introduced Western arts, philosophy, and technology and styled themselves as bringing enlightenment. It was in this edgy, tumultuous world that Ham's plays were first performed.

With the end of World War II and the collapse of the Japanese colonial government, Ham opted to side with North Korea. Subsequently, he was blacklisted for more than forty years in the South as a leftist and communist defector. Publication or performance of his works as well as...

During the Japanese occupation of Korea, young intellectuals like Se-dŏk Ham, eager to transform the traditional Korean ways, introduced Western arts, philosophy, and technology and styled themselves as bringing enlightenment. It was in this edgy, tumultuous world that Ham's plays were first performed.

With the end of World War II and the collapse of the Japanese colonial government, Ham opted to side with North Korea. Subsequently, he was blacklisted for more than forty years in the South as a leftist and communist defector. Publication or performance of his works as well as...