Youngbin HYEON

10.18399/acta.2026.29.1.004

Shakespeare  Asian theater  Korean adaptation  Hamyŏl/Haemnit  Buddhist language

Western academia has often overlooked Asian interpretations of Shakespearean plays, largely due to the misconception that Asian theater arts—characterized by their focus on corporeal and expressionistic aesthetics—are fundamentally incompatible with Shakespeare’s language-focused works. As a result, Western critics frequently fail to engage with or understand Asian Shakespeare productions. This paper challenges such simplistic evaluations by arguing that they stem from a lack of engagement with the languages and cultural contexts through which Asian theater companies reinterpret and present Shakespeare. The study begins by investigating the history of Asian Shakespearean productions and their neglect by Euro-American scholars. It then analyzes Brian Byungkoo Ahn’s Hamyŏl/Haemnit, a Korean adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, which integrates the tragic modern history of Korea and Buddhist perspectives on life, death, and the afterlife. To fully understand these intercultural meanings and the reinterpretation of Hamlet, one requires a grasp of the Korean language. The paper further examines the language of Hamyŏl/Haemnit, demonstrating how this adaptation offers a genuinely valuable intercultural reinterpretation. On the basis of this, the paper argues that language is crucial in Asian Shakespeare productions in general and suggests that Hamyŏl/Haemnit has contributed to a richer, more nuanced understanding of Shakespeare’s works through its incorporation of Korean cultural and linguistic elements.