The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Drama

The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Drama
Author: Xiaomei Chen
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 656
Release: 2014-04-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 023116503X

This condensed anthology reproduces close to a dozen plays from Xiaomei ChenÕs well-received original collection, along with her critical introduction to the historical, cultural, and aesthetic evolution of twentieth-century Chinese spoken drama. Comprising representative works from the PeopleÕs Republic of China, the collection encapsulates the revolutionary rethinking of Chinese theater and performance that began in the late Qing dynasty and vividly portrays the uncertainty and anxiety brought on by modernism, socialism, political conflict, and war. Chosen works from 1919 to 1990 also highlight the formation of Chinese national and gender identities during a period of tremendous social, cultural, and political change and the genesis of contemporary attitudes toward the West. PRC theater tracks the rise of communism in China, juxtaposing ideals of Chinese socialism against the sacrifices made for a new society. Post-Mao drama addresses the nationÕs socialist legacy, its attempt to reexamine its cultural roots, and postsocialist reflections on critical issues such as nation, class, gender, and collective memories. An essential, portable guide for easy reference and classroom use, this abridgement provides a concise yet well-rounded survey of China's theatricality and representation of political life. This work has not only established a canon of modern Chinese drama but also made it available for the first time in English in a single volume.

Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture

Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture
Author: Edward Lawrence Davis
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 1158
Release: 2005
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 041577716X

First Published in 2009. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Polyphony Embodied - Freedom and Fate in Gao Xingjian’s Writings

Polyphony Embodied - Freedom and Fate in Gao Xingjian’s Writings
Author: Michael Lackner
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2014-06-23
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3110351870

Like artists, important writers defy unequivocal interpretations. Gao Xingjian, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, is a cosmopolitan writer, deeply rooted in the Chinese past while influenced by paragons of Western Modernity. The present volume is less interested in a general discussion on the multitude of aspects in Gao's works and even less in controversies concerning their aesthetic value than in obtaining a response to the crucial issues of freedom and fate from a clearly defined angle. The very nature of the answer to the question of freedom and fate within Gao Xingjian's works can be called a polyphonic one: there are affirmative as well as skeptical voices. But polyphony, as embodied by Gao, is an even more multifaceted phenomenon. Most important for our contention is the fact that Gao Xingjian's aesthetic experience embodies prose, theater, painting, and film. Taken together, they form a Gesamtkunstwerk whose diversity of voices characterizes every single one of them.

The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature

The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature
Author: Kirk A. Denton
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 818
Release: 2016-04-05
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0231541147

The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature features more than fifty short essays on specific writers and literary trends from the Qing period (1895–1911) to the present. The volume opens with thematic essays on the politics and ethics of writing literary history, the formation of the canon, the relationship between language and form, the role of literary institutions and communities, the effects of censorship, the representation of the Chinese diaspora, the rise and meaning of Sinophone literature, and the role of different media in the development of literature. Subsequent essays focus on authors, their works, and the schools with which they were aligned, featuring key names, titles, and terms in English and in Chinese characters. Woven throughout are pieces on late Qing fiction, popular entertainment fiction, martial arts fiction, experimental theater, post-Mao avant-garde poetry, post–martial law fiction from Taiwan, contemporary genre fiction from China, and recent Internet literature. The volume includes essays on such authors as Liang Qichao, Lu Xun, Shen Congwen, Eileen Chang, Jin Yong, Mo Yan, Wang Anyi, Gao Xingjian, and Yan Lianke. Both a teaching tool and a go-to research companion, this volume is a one-of-a-kind resource for mastering modern literature in the Chinese-speaking world.

Dionysus on the Other Shore

Dionysus on the Other Shore
Author: Letizia Fusini
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2020-01-13
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9004423389

In Dionysus on the Other Shore, Letizia Fusini argues that throughout his early exile years (late 1980s-1990s), Gao Xingjian gradually moved away from Absurdist Drama to develop a dramaturgical system with tragic characteristics. Drawing on a range of contemporary theories of tragedy, this book reconfigures some of the key tropes of Gao’s post-1987 theater as varied articulations of the Dionysian sparagmos mechanism. They are the dismemberment of the dramatic self, the usage of constricted spaces, the divisive nature of gender relations, and the agony of verbal language. Through a text-based analysis of seven plays, the author ultimately aims to show that in Gao’s theater, tragedy is an ongoing and mostly subtextual dynamism generated by an interplay of psychic forces concurrently cohesive and divisive.

Gao Xingjian’s Post-Exile Plays

Gao Xingjian’s Post-Exile Plays
Author: Mary Mazzilli
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2015-11-19
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1472591615

Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2000, Gao Xingjian is the first Chinese writer to be so lauded for his prose and plays. Since relocating to France in 1987, in a voluntary exile from China, he has assembled a body of dramatic work that has best been understood neither as expressly Chinese nor French, but as transnational. In this comprehensive study of his post-exile plays, Mary Mazzilli explores Gao's plays as examples of postdramatic transnationalism: a transnational artistic and theatrical trend that is fluid, flexible and encompasses a variety of styles and influences. As such, this innovative interdisciplinary investigation offers fresh insights into contemporary theatre. Whereas other publications have considered Gao's work as a cultural and artistic phenomenon, Gao Xingjian's Post-Exile Plays: Transnationalism and Postdramatic Theatre is the first study to relate his plays to postdramatic theatre and to provide close textual and dramatic analysis that will help readers to better understand his complex work, and also to see it in the context of the work of contemporary playwrights such as Martin Crimp, Peter Handke, and Elfriede Jelinek. Among the plays discussed are: The Other Shore, written just before he left China in 1987; Between Life and Death (1991) - compared in detail to Martin Crimp's Attempts on her life; Dialogue and Rebuttal (1992), and its relationship to Beckett's Happy Days; Nocturnal Wanderer (1993), Weekend Quartet (1995), and the latest plays Snow in August (1997), Death Collector (2000) and Ballade Nocturne (2010).

Ottemiller's Index to Plays in Collections

Ottemiller's Index to Plays in Collections
Author: John Henry Ottemiller
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 833
Release: 2011
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0810877201

The standard location tool for full-length plays published in collections and anthologies in England and the United States since the beginning of the 20th century, Ottemiller's Index to Plays in Collections has undergone seven previous editions, the latest in 1988, covering 1900 through 1985. In this new edition, Denise Montgomery has expanded the volume to include collections published in the entire English-speaking world through 2000 and beyond. This new volume lists more than 3,500 new plays and 2,000 new authors, as well as birth and/or death information for hundreds of authors. Representing the largest expansion between editions, this updated volume is a valuable resource for libraries worldwide.

Tiananmen Fictions outside the Square

Tiananmen Fictions outside the Square
Author: Belinda Kong
Publisher: Temple University Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2012-05-04
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1439907609

An exciting analysis of the myriad literary effects of Tiananmen, Belinda Kong's Tiananmen Fictions Outside the Square is the first full-length study of fictions related to the 1989 movement and massacre. More than any other episode in recent world history, Tiananmen has brought a distinctly politicized Chinese literary diaspora into stark relief. Kong redefines Tiananmen's meaning from an event that ended in local political failure to one that succeeded in producing a vital dimension of contemporary transnational writing today. She spotlights key writers-Gao Xingjian, Ha Jin, Annie Wang, and Ma Jian-who have written and published about the massacre from abroad. Their outsider/distanced perspectives inform their work, and reveal how diaspora writers continually reimagine Tiananmen's relevance to the post-1989 world at large. Compelling us to think about how Chinese culture, identity, and politics are being defined in the diaspora, Tiananmen Fictions Outside the Square candidly addresses issues of political exile, historical trauma, global capital, and state biopower.

Gao Xingjian's Idea of Theatre

Gao Xingjian's Idea of Theatre
Author: Izabella Łabędzka
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2008-08-31
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9047433742

This book argues that Gao Xingjian's Idea of Theatre can only be explained by his broad knowledge and use of various Chinese and Western theatrical, literary, artistic and philosophical traditions. The author aims to show how Gao's theories of the theatre of anti-illusion, theatre of conscious convention, of the "poor theatre" and total theatre, of the neutral actor and the actor - jester - storyteller are derived from the Far Eastern tradition, and to what extent they have been inspired by 20th century Euro-American reformers of theatre such as Antonin Artaud, Bertolt Brecht, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Jerzy Grotowski and Tadeusz Kantor. Although Gao' s plays and theatre form the major subject, this volume also pays ample attention to his painting and passion for music as sources of his dramaturgical strategies.

The Superhero Costume

The Superhero Costume
Author: Barbara Brownie
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2015-11-19
Genre: Design
ISBN: 1472595920

Costume defines the superhero, disguising and distinguishing him or her from the civilian alter ego. The often garish garb expresses a hero's otherness and empowers its wearers to seek a primal form of justice. This book provides the first interdisciplinary analysis of the superhero costume and investigates wide-ranging issues such as identity, otherness, ritual dress and disguise. Analysis focuses on the implications of wearing superhero costume, exploring interpretations of the costumed hero and the extent to which the costume defines his or her role. Using examples across various media (comic books, film, and television) with case studies including The X-Men, Watchmen, real-life superheroes such as Phoenix Jones and Pussy Riot, and audience activities such as cosplay, The Superhero Costume presents new perspectives on the increasingly popular genre. A lively and thorough account of superhero fashions throughout history, The Superhero Costume will be essential reading for students of visual culture, popular culture, fashion and cultural studies.