Abstract:

This essay critiques the vogue of “the homosexual code” in contemporary Korean theatre, with a close-up analysis of ShowNote Company’s Shakespeare’s R & J that premiered in 2018. It first examines the surge of queer-themed films and theatres since the mid-2000s in relation to the growing visibility of homosexuality, the changing concept of masculinity, the “flower boy” syndrome, and neoliberalism in South Korea. Defining the “homosexual code” as a distancing strategy of encoding homosexuality to bypass homophobia, I problematize the way queer subject is appropriated for novelty and spectacle in the theatre industry. The second part of the essay examines ShowNote’s R & J in depth, partly in response to a recent discussion of Choo Min Ju’s Our Bad Magnet (2012) by Claire Maria Chambers. Pointing to a close resemblance between the two, I argue that both shows adopt the established formula of “the homosexual code,” contingent upon the neoliberal ideology of commodification and consumerism.

摘要：

这篇文章批判了当代韩国戏剧中“同性恋密码”的风潮，并对 2018 年首映的 ShowNote 公司的莎士比亚的 R&J 进行了特写分析。它首先考察了自2000 年代与同性恋日益增长的知名度、男性气质概念的变化、“花童”综合症和韩国的新自由主义有关。将“同性恋代码”定义为一种对同性恋进行编码以绕过同性恋恐惧症的疏远策略，我质疑在戏剧行业中，酷儿主题被用于新奇和奇观的方式。文章的第二部分深入探讨了 ShowNote 的 R & J，部分是为了回应 Claire Maria Chambers 最近对 Choo Min Ju 的 Our Bad Magnet (2012) 的讨论。指出两者之间的密切相似之处，