ABSTRACT
The Republic of Korea has a rich tradition of mask dance dramas. In the Republic of Korea in 2015, the ways women are – and are not – involved in mask dance drama reveals intersecting issues of traditionalism, national representation, authenticity, gender and women's empowerment. In this chapter, the author sketches the changing role of women in mask dance dramas and asks what the implications of this change are for the future of the Korean mask dance dramas. She seeks to answer several questions about the participation of women. With the exception of courtesans, female performers in pre-modern Korea were of low social standing. The barriers to women's participation in mask dance dramas are reinforced by the essentialized beliefs about gender that continue to be a major factor in Korean society, so that this examination of mask dance dramas also serves as an observation of gender negotiation in contemporary Korean society.
