Gao Xingjian and Transcultural Chinese Theater

Gao Xingjian and Transcultural Chinese Theater PDF Author: Sy Ren Quah
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824826291
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
A reclusive painter living in exile in Paris, Gao Xingjian found himself instantly famous when he became the first Chinese language writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature (2000). The author of the novel Soul Mountain, Gao is best known in his native country not as a visual artist or novelist, but as a playwright and theater director. This important yet rarely studied figure is the focus of Sy Ren Quah’s rich account appraising his contributions to contemporary Chinese and World Theater over the past two decades. A playwright himself, Quah provides an in-depth analysis of the literary, dramatic, intellectual, and technical aspects of Gao’s plays and theatrical concepts, treating Gao’s theater not only as an art form but, with Gao himself, as a significant cultural phenomenon. The Bus Stop, Wild Man, and other early works are examined in the context of 1980s China. Influenced by Stanislavsky, Brecht, and Beckett, as well as traditional Chinese theater arts and philosophies, Gao refused to conform to the dominant realist conventions of the time and made a conscious effort to renovate Chinese theater. The young playwright sought to create a "Modern Eastern Theater" that was neither a vague generalization nor a nationalistic declaration, but a challenge to orthodox ideologies. After fleeing China, Gao was free to experiment openly with theatrical forms. Quah examines his post-exile plays in a context of performance theory and philosophical concerns, such as the real versus the unreal, and the Self versus the Other. The image conveyed of Gao is not of an activist but of an intellectual committed to maintaining his artistic independence who continues to voice his opinion on political matters.

Gao Xingjian and Transcultural Chinese Theater

Gao Xingjian and Transcultural Chinese Theater PDF Author: Sy Ren Quah
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824826291
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 252

Get Book

Book Description
A reclusive painter living in exile in Paris, Gao Xingjian found himself instantly famous when he became the first Chinese language writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature (2000). The author of the novel Soul Mountain, Gao is best known in his native country not as a visual artist or novelist, but as a playwright and theater director. This important yet rarely studied figure is the focus of Sy Ren Quah’s rich account appraising his contributions to contemporary Chinese and World Theater over the past two decades. A playwright himself, Quah provides an in-depth analysis of the literary, dramatic, intellectual, and technical aspects of Gao’s plays and theatrical concepts, treating Gao’s theater not only as an art form but, with Gao himself, as a significant cultural phenomenon. The Bus Stop, Wild Man, and other early works are examined in the context of 1980s China. Influenced by Stanislavsky, Brecht, and Beckett, as well as traditional Chinese theater arts and philosophies, Gao refused to conform to the dominant realist conventions of the time and made a conscious effort to renovate Chinese theater. The young playwright sought to create a "Modern Eastern Theater" that was neither a vague generalization nor a nationalistic declaration, but a challenge to orthodox ideologies. After fleeing China, Gao was free to experiment openly with theatrical forms. Quah examines his post-exile plays in a context of performance theory and philosophical concerns, such as the real versus the unreal, and the Self versus the Other. The image conveyed of Gao is not of an activist but of an intellectual committed to maintaining his artistic independence who continues to voice his opinion on political matters.

Transcultural Aesthetics in the Plays of Gao Xingjian

Transcultural Aesthetics in the Plays of Gao Xingjian PDF Author: T. Coulter
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137440740
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 135

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Book Description
Gao Xingjian has been lauded for his inventive use of Chinese culture in his paintings, plays, and cinema, however he denies that his current work participates in any notion of Chinese. This book traces the development of these forms and how the relate and interact in the French language plays of the Nobel Laureate.

Gao Xingjian's Idea of Theatre

Gao Xingjian's Idea of Theatre PDF Author: Izabella Łabędzka
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047433742
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
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.

Performing Identity in the Plays of Gao Xingjian

Performing Identity in the Plays of Gao Xingjian PDF Author: Todd J. Coulter
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780773444911
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Offers a fresh look at a theater scholar and Nobel Peace Prize laureate viewed from a cultural studies lens. This exploration of transcultural theater is useful to both the general and initiated reader. It embraces the social and aesthetic influences of traditional Chinese theater and the intellectual, cultural influences of French theater.

A History of Chinese Theatre in the 20th Century IV

A History of Chinese Theatre in the 20th Century IV PDF Author: Fu Jin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000435571
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
The 20th century was a dynamic period for the theatrical arts in China. The four volumes of A History of Chinese Theatre in the 20th Century display the developmental trajectories of Chinese theatre over those hundred years. This volume examines the development of Chinese theatrical art from the Cultural Revolution to the end of the 20th century. The Cultural Revolution had a devastating influence on the theatrical profession, reducing the creation of performance art to serving the political authorities. Adopting a critical view, the author argues that the Reform and Opening-up of the late 1970s not only ended this period of political interference, but also brought about chaos and doubts to the theatrical circle, since neither tradition nor western concepts were a panacea for the problems faced by Chinese theatre. He posits that people should advocate patterns of drama that are rich and colourful in their expression while encouraging the coexistence and competition of different artistic concepts. Scholars and students in the history of the arts, especially the history of Chinese theatre, will find this book to be an essential guide.

Dionysus on the Other Shore

Dionysus on the Other Shore PDF Author: Letizia Fusini
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004423389
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
In Dionysus on the Other Shore, Letizia Fusini re-examines Gao Xingjian’s post-1987 theatre as a form of tragedy.

Gao Xingjian’s Post-Exile Plays

Gao Xingjian’s Post-Exile Plays PDF Author: Mary Mazzilli
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472591615
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
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).

Drama Box 30 Keywords

Drama Box 30 Keywords PDF Author: Quah Sy Ren
Publisher: Drama Box Ltd and Pagesetters Services Pte Ltd
ISBN: 9811819181
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 697

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Book Description
A comprehensive, multi-layered examination and discussion of Drama Box’s 30-year history, based on 30 key words. These allow you to connect and refer to the characteristics and social thought of the times on a broader level. The book offers exclusive insight into Drama Box as an independent theatre company, and incisive appreciation of Singapore’s theatre and social landscape.

Gao Xingjian and Transmedia Aesthetics

Gao Xingjian and Transmedia Aesthetics PDF Author: Mabel Lee
Publisher: Cambria Sinophone World
ISBN: 9781604979466
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description


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

Polyphony Embodied - Freedom and Fate in Gao Xingjian’s Writings PDF Author: Michael Lackner
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110351870
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
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: thereare 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.