Author: Sy Ren Quah
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824826291
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 252
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
Author: Sy Ren Quah
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824826291
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 252
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.
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824826291
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 252
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.
Dionysus on the Other Shore
Author: Letizia Fusini
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004423389
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 253
Book Description
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.
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004423389
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 253
Book Description
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.
Historical Dictionary of Modern Chinese Literature
Author: Li-hua Ying
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538130068
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 825
Book Description
Modern Chinese literature has been flourishing for over a century, with varying degrees of intensity and energy at different junctures of history and points of locale. An integral part of world literature from the moment it was born, it has been in constant dialogue with its counterparts from the rest of the world. As it has been challenged and enriched by external influences, it has contributed to the wealth of literary culture of the entire world. In terms of themes and styles, modern Chinese literature is rich and varied; from the revolutionary to the pastoral, from romanticism to feminism, from modernism to post-modernism, critical realism, psychological realism, socialist realism, and magical realism. Indeed, it encompasses a full range of ideological and aesthetic concerns. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Modern Chinese Literature presents a broad perspective on the development and history of literature in modern China. It offers a chronology, introduction, bibliography, and over 400 cross-referenced dictionary entries on authors, literary and historical developments, trends, genres, and concepts that played a central role in the evolution of modern Chinese literature.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538130068
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 825
Book Description
Modern Chinese literature has been flourishing for over a century, with varying degrees of intensity and energy at different junctures of history and points of locale. An integral part of world literature from the moment it was born, it has been in constant dialogue with its counterparts from the rest of the world. As it has been challenged and enriched by external influences, it has contributed to the wealth of literary culture of the entire world. In terms of themes and styles, modern Chinese literature is rich and varied; from the revolutionary to the pastoral, from romanticism to feminism, from modernism to post-modernism, critical realism, psychological realism, socialist realism, and magical realism. Indeed, it encompasses a full range of ideological and aesthetic concerns. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Modern Chinese Literature presents a broad perspective on the development and history of literature in modern China. It offers a chronology, introduction, bibliography, and over 400 cross-referenced dictionary entries on authors, literary and historical developments, trends, genres, and concepts that played a central role in the evolution of modern Chinese literature.
The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature
Author: Kirk A. Denton
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231541147
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 818
Book Description
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.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231541147
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 818
Book Description
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.
Nobel And Lasker Laureates Of Chinese Descent: In Literature And Science
Author: Todd S Ing
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814704636
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310
Book Description
'Ranging from original photographs to pictures from university archives, the insightful curation of images in this book further enhances the reading experience … An authoritative and comprehensive synthesis of both primary and secondary sources, Nobel and Lasker Laureates of Chinese Descent offers unparalleled insight into the most eminent twentieth-century physicians and scientists of Chinese descent. The book is of broad interest to anyone interested in the history of science and medicine, especially when there is a growing recognition of both the importance of diversity in STEM and the impact of Chinese research on the global scientific community.'Current Biology MagazineAt the turn of the 20th century, the Boxer Uprising marked the culmination of a violent and tragic chapter in Chinese history. Out of the ashes of this calamity, scholarships funded by Boxer Indemnity and many others fostered some of the greatest minds in the Chinese modern era. This book celebrates notable luminary scholars of Chinese descent, with a special focus on 1 Wolf Prize, 4 Lasker, and 11 Nobel laureates spanning a wide range of disciplines in both literature and science. We visit the struggles of pioneers Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang as the first Chinese Nobel prize recipients for characterizing fundamental laws in elementary-particle physics. Their pioneering works have paved the way for many to follow. We chronicle the careers of more recent recipients, including Mo Yan and his celebration of peasant life in China through the lens of hallucinatory realism. We delve into the lives of these Laureates, witness the obstacles that they overcame, and testify to their lasting contributions to humankind. In recounting the intellectual struggles and triumphs of these pioneers of Chinese heritage, we hope to inspire the next generation of scholars in literature and science worldwide in the hope that they too might become laureates one day.
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814704636
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310
Book Description
'Ranging from original photographs to pictures from university archives, the insightful curation of images in this book further enhances the reading experience … An authoritative and comprehensive synthesis of both primary and secondary sources, Nobel and Lasker Laureates of Chinese Descent offers unparalleled insight into the most eminent twentieth-century physicians and scientists of Chinese descent. The book is of broad interest to anyone interested in the history of science and medicine, especially when there is a growing recognition of both the importance of diversity in STEM and the impact of Chinese research on the global scientific community.'Current Biology MagazineAt the turn of the 20th century, the Boxer Uprising marked the culmination of a violent and tragic chapter in Chinese history. Out of the ashes of this calamity, scholarships funded by Boxer Indemnity and many others fostered some of the greatest minds in the Chinese modern era. This book celebrates notable luminary scholars of Chinese descent, with a special focus on 1 Wolf Prize, 4 Lasker, and 11 Nobel laureates spanning a wide range of disciplines in both literature and science. We visit the struggles of pioneers Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang as the first Chinese Nobel prize recipients for characterizing fundamental laws in elementary-particle physics. Their pioneering works have paved the way for many to follow. We chronicle the careers of more recent recipients, including Mo Yan and his celebration of peasant life in China through the lens of hallucinatory realism. We delve into the lives of these Laureates, witness the obstacles that they overcame, and testify to their lasting contributions to humankind. In recounting the intellectual struggles and triumphs of these pioneers of Chinese heritage, we hope to inspire the next generation of scholars in literature and science worldwide in the hope that they too might become laureates one day.
The A to Z of Modern Chinese Literature
Author: Li-hua Ying
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 1461731879
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 502
Book Description
The A to Z of Modern Chinese Literature presents a broad perspective on the development and history of literature in modern China. It offers a chronology, introduction, bibliography, and over 300 cross-referenced dictionary entries on authors, literary and historical developments, trends, genres, and concepts that played a central role in the evolution of modern Chinese literature.
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 1461731879
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 502
Book Description
The A to Z of Modern Chinese Literature presents a broad perspective on the development and history of literature in modern China. It offers a chronology, introduction, bibliography, and over 300 cross-referenced dictionary entries on authors, literary and historical developments, trends, genres, and concepts that played a central role in the evolution of modern Chinese literature.
City of the Dead and Song of the Night
Author: Gao Xingjian
Publisher: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press
ISBN: 9629966506
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 112
Book Description
Presented in English for the first time in this book are two plays by Gao Xingjian originally written in Chinese: City of the Dead and Song of the Night. City of the Dead is the first of Gao Xingjian's plays to focus fully on the malefemale relationship. In this work, he transforms a wellknown ancient morality tale, "Zhuangzi Tests His Wife", which had been used to caution women against being unfaithful to their husbands, into a modern play that is in keeping with his own sympathetic stance towards women in malefemale relationships. In a certain sense, City of the Dead may be regarded as defining Gao's fundamental view that men possess a flippant and cavalier attitude to their female sexual partner or partners, and that women who become involved in sexual relationships with men are therefore doomed to suffer. Among Gao Xingjian's theatrical portrayals of the female psyche, Song of the Night is his most ambitious and most detailed one. Gao's articulation of the female psyche is embedded in a solid substratumbedrock of his autobiographical impulses. It is through female actors, and his range of ingenious theatrical innovations that Gao succeeds in convincingly portraying his personal view of the power dynamics generated in malefemale sexual relationships, and how these are played out. Together, these two plays advance Gao Xingjian's innovative theatrical experiments in dramatic prose across linguistic and cultural boundaries. The English translations of City of the Dead and Song of the Night in the present volume will lead to significant Englishlanguage productions of these plays, and concomitantly a greater understanding of Gao's plays.
Publisher: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press
ISBN: 9629966506
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 112
Book Description
Presented in English for the first time in this book are two plays by Gao Xingjian originally written in Chinese: City of the Dead and Song of the Night. City of the Dead is the first of Gao Xingjian's plays to focus fully on the malefemale relationship. In this work, he transforms a wellknown ancient morality tale, "Zhuangzi Tests His Wife", which had been used to caution women against being unfaithful to their husbands, into a modern play that is in keeping with his own sympathetic stance towards women in malefemale relationships. In a certain sense, City of the Dead may be regarded as defining Gao's fundamental view that men possess a flippant and cavalier attitude to their female sexual partner or partners, and that women who become involved in sexual relationships with men are therefore doomed to suffer. Among Gao Xingjian's theatrical portrayals of the female psyche, Song of the Night is his most ambitious and most detailed one. Gao's articulation of the female psyche is embedded in a solid substratumbedrock of his autobiographical impulses. It is through female actors, and his range of ingenious theatrical innovations that Gao succeeds in convincingly portraying his personal view of the power dynamics generated in malefemale sexual relationships, and how these are played out. Together, these two plays advance Gao Xingjian's innovative theatrical experiments in dramatic prose across linguistic and cultural boundaries. The English translations of City of the Dead and Song of the Night in the present volume will lead to significant Englishlanguage productions of these plays, and concomitantly a greater understanding of Gao's plays.
Soul Mountain
Author: Xingjian Gao
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
ISBN: 0730491196
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 31
Book Description
the worldwide bestselling novel by the winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature.Soul Mountain is a picaresque novel of immense wisdom and sparse beauty, bursting with knowledge and experience and portraying a culture as vast and fascinating as the history of humankind itself.In China in the early eighties, the book's central character embarks on a cross-country journey in search of the mysterious 'Mountain'. Along the way he collects stories, lovers, spiritual wisdom and undergoes myriad experiences that are sometimes violent, sometimes frightening, sometimes funny, but always enriching. He researches the origins of humankind and Chinese culture, and explores philosophical issues such as truth, knowledge and how oneᱠchildhood affects later life. At the end of the book, he realises that all along what was important was not finding the elusive Soul Mountain, but rather the journey itself. Part love story, part fable, part philosophical treatise and part travel journal, this is one of the most challenging, rewarding and inventive works of fiction since Ulysses.
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
ISBN: 0730491196
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 31
Book Description
the worldwide bestselling novel by the winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature.Soul Mountain is a picaresque novel of immense wisdom and sparse beauty, bursting with knowledge and experience and portraying a culture as vast and fascinating as the history of humankind itself.In China in the early eighties, the book's central character embarks on a cross-country journey in search of the mysterious 'Mountain'. Along the way he collects stories, lovers, spiritual wisdom and undergoes myriad experiences that are sometimes violent, sometimes frightening, sometimes funny, but always enriching. He researches the origins of humankind and Chinese culture, and explores philosophical issues such as truth, knowledge and how oneᱠchildhood affects later life. At the end of the book, he realises that all along what was important was not finding the elusive Soul Mountain, but rather the journey itself. Part love story, part fable, part philosophical treatise and part travel journal, this is one of the most challenging, rewarding and inventive works of fiction since Ulysses.
Chinese Adaptations of Brecht
Author: Wei Zhang
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030377784
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 210
Book Description
This book examines the two-way impacts between Brecht and Chinese culture and drama/theatre, focusing on Chinese theatrical productions since the end of the Cultural Revolution all the way to the first decades of the twenty-first century. Wei Zhang considers how Brecht’s plays have been adapted/appropriated by Chinese theatre artists to speak to the sociopolitical, economic, and cultural developments in China and how such endeavors reflect and result from dynamic interactions between Chinese philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics, especially as embodied in traditional xiqu and the Brechtian concepts of estrangement (Verfremdungseffekt) and political theatre. In examining these Brecht adaptations, Zhang offers an interdisciplinary study that contributes to the fields of comparative drama/theatre studies, intercultural studies, and performance studies.
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030377784
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 210
Book Description
This book examines the two-way impacts between Brecht and Chinese culture and drama/theatre, focusing on Chinese theatrical productions since the end of the Cultural Revolution all the way to the first decades of the twenty-first century. Wei Zhang considers how Brecht’s plays have been adapted/appropriated by Chinese theatre artists to speak to the sociopolitical, economic, and cultural developments in China and how such endeavors reflect and result from dynamic interactions between Chinese philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics, especially as embodied in traditional xiqu and the Brechtian concepts of estrangement (Verfremdungseffekt) and political theatre. In examining these Brecht adaptations, Zhang offers an interdisciplinary study that contributes to the fields of comparative drama/theatre studies, intercultural studies, and performance studies.
Polyphony Embodied - Freedom and Fate in Gao Xingjian’s Writings
Author: Michael Lackner
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110351870
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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: 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.
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110351870
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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: 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.