Allegory of Survival

Book excerpt: In the civil and government upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s in Korea, Kang-baek Lee began his distinguished playwriting career. He is perhaps best known as the premier writer of social commentary in the form of allegories in an effort to circumvent extremely strict censorship laws which were heavily enforced until 1989. However, Lee is not just an allegorist. He weaves Confucianism values throughout his works: affection between fathers and sons; justice; relationships between husbands and wives; deference to the elders; and trust. Through over forty works, Kang-baek Lee has played and continues to play a formidable role in South Korean theatre, but Western appreciation for his works has been limited to Europe. This present anthology introduces to an English-reading audience a playwright whose dedication to the truth could not be squashed by government censorship and whose imagination paved the path for many younger playwrights now at the forefront of South Korean theatre. This book provides insights into Kang-baek Lee as a person and the magnitude of his impact on Korean culture.