Research On Zhang Geng’s Drama Poetry Theory

The development of Chinese opera in the 20 th century has been greatly impacted by the discourse system of the western drama theory.So it is very important to reflect on this situation,find out the right direction of Chinese opera and construct the discourse system of Chinese drama theory.As a leading figure in the study of 20 th century Chinese drama,Mr.Zhang Geng had done lots of practice and research on Chinese drama,which is worth our in-depth and systematic study.The thesis is to carry out a relatively comprehensive study on “Dramatic Poetry”,which is the key word of the drama theory of Zhang Geng.The thesis is divided into four chapters: the thesis starts with searching for the eastern and western drama theoretic background,which Zhang Geng ’s drama theory is based on.Then the thesis tries to restore the historical context of the generation of the “Dramatic Poetry”,and tries to analyze the evolution and development of this theory in three different periods,establish a comprehensive system of three dimensions of playwriting,performance of stage and acceptance of the audience,finally tries to analyze the contribution and inadequacies of the drama poetry theory.The first chapter is a search for the theoretical background of eastern and western drama theories,which is the theoretical basis of Zhang Geng ’s drama poetry theory.By researching the relationship between drama and poetry in western drama theory,the development history of Chinese opera and the theoretical tradition of Chinese opera,the thesis tries to analyze what imprint that the eastern and western drama theories had left on Zhang Geng ’s drama poetry theory.The second chapter is mainly about presenting the evolution of Zhang Geng ’s drama poetry theory from proposal,development to the gradual improvement.In the1940 s,Zhang Geng put forward a rough idea on drama poetry for the first time,aiming at guiding the creation of Chinese opera and drama at that time.In the 1960 s,he explored his ideas about drama poetry theory in more detail than that in 1940 s.And finally in 1980 s,Zhang Geng changed his theoretical points of view from playwriting to the performance on the stage and the acception of the audience,establishing his poetic aesthetic ideal on three dimensions of drama creation : playwriting — —performance on stage and the acception of audience.The third chapter is about to summarize Zhang Geng ’s drama poetry theory into three comprehensive dimensions,fill in the blank of his theoretical framework and crystallize its internal logic.The poetic characteristic of drama that Zhang Geng regards as important,actually is the poetization of the language of drama,stage performance and aesthetic reception.Therefore the three poetization characteristics of drama can be accordingly summarized into demands of drama poetry creation in three dimensions:the aesthetic qualities of script text,poetical performance on stage and the soul shock of the audience.The fourth chapter is to evaluate the contribution and the inadequacies of Zhang Geng ’s drama poetry theory.Firstly in the aspect of the contribution,it plays an important role in practically guiding on enhancing the literary quality of drama script and improving the stage performance arts.Moreover drama poetry theory is not only becoming a vital key word of Zhang Geng ’s drama theoretical system and his unique aesthetic ideal on drama,but also an extension to Chinese aesthetics drama theories.Secondly in terms of the inadequacies,what comes first is that Zhang Geng still couldn’t get rid of the impact of mighty context of western drama theory discourse.and when Zhang Geng uses the concept of drama poetry,he has a discussion in both narrow sense and broad sense consciously and unconsciously,and he didn’t make an academic claim on how to perform poetically on stage and why drama is a so-called poetry on stage,he just stagnated his idea in an emotional aesthetic category.Thus the this thesis aims at detailedly discussing Zhang Geng ’s drama poetry theory from above-mentioned four chapters,trying to get a relatively in-depth understanding of Zhang Geng ’s drama theories.