An Analysis Of The Sublime Characteristics Of Chinese Modern Tragedy

Sublime and tragedy is a pair of complementary concepts in the history of Western Aesthetics. Scholars have discussed the concept of sublime since the ancient Greek times. Among them, Kant made great contributions to sublime theory for he not only absorbed the predecessors’achievements, but also set a profound influence on later generations. Despite of the similarities of Sublime and tragedy, scholars generally explained them separately in the early time of western aesthetics, until Schiller theoretically demonstrates the connection between the two.Different from Western tragedy, Chinese classical tragedy is always featured with agony and weakness. The outbreak of the Opium war trapped China into humiliation for nearly a century. The turbulent society forced classical tragedy to make big changes. And with the introduction of western modern enlightenment, Chinese modern tragedy was born.Open and passionate, Chinese modern tragedy becomes full of sublime beauty by selectively inheriting the fine tradition of classical tragedy, as well as the techniques of western tragedy. On basis of Kant’s theory, the sublime qualities of modern tragedy will be demonstrated in many aspects and a summary will be done on the characteristics of Chinese modern tragedy.Preface combed the origins of sublime concept, analyzes the similarities between sublime and tragedy, list the important concepts and discuss research methods in detail.The first chapter introduces comprehensive background and development process of how Chinese classical tragedy transformed into a modern tragedy, and makes a general description of modern tragedy.The second chapter analyzes the concrete manifestation of Chinese modern tragedy, from tragedy theme, characters, affections and imagery.The third chapter summarizes the characteristics of sublime qualities in Chinese modern tragedy.