On The Chinese Contemporary Avant-Garde Theatre (1979-2000)

The Chinese contemporary avant-garde theatre appeared at the end of 1970s and the very beginning of 1980s. Being an important theatre phenomenon, however, it seems scattering and shallow for its research. This dissertation is a youth project funded by the nation-wide artistic subject "the 10th five-year" project that the author independently undertakes, whose main idea is to systematically discuss the vanguard of the Chinese contemporary avant-garde theatre, thinking that its vanguard mostly consists of 4 aspects, that is, the experiment on the artistic form, the radicalness on the ideological content, the nativeness on the main identity, and the marginalization on the location of setting up. Up to now, the whole dissertation has been ultimately completed, remaining about 200,000 characters. The introduction, the 1st chapter, the epilogue and 2 appendixes are presented for the doctoral degree.In introduction part, the author combs the concept of "avant-garde", puts forward its experiment, radicalness, nativeness and marginalization about the Chinese contemporary avant-garde theatre. In addition, he points out that the relativity on space and time should be noticed for the assurance of these features, namely, we can not judge the domestic avant-garde with foreign standards, or judge the past avant-garde with the current standards. As far as the emergence background of the Chinese contemporary avant-garde theatre is concerned, it is revealed in many aspects, such as the translation and presentation about the western drama aesthetics of modernist schools, some ardent discussions in the literary circle, the drama crisis and the contention for the view about the drama. Its development process can be approximately divided into two phases, that is 1980s and 1990s, which are different in intensity of the expenment. the purpose and the degree of edge of experiment about the avant-gardeThe experiment on the artistic form of the Chinese contemporary avant-garde theatre is discussed in respects of the script, the direction, the performance and the stage art in the 1st chapter. In the aspect of script, the traditional position as "the fundamentality of a theatre" is firstly cleared up, and the traditional form is changed as well, thus resulting in the appearing of a) the structural forms, such as the medley structure, the double-deck structure, the anti-structure; b) the language style, such as the polyphonic language, the simple monologue, the recitation, the sound outside the theatre, and c) the expression skills, such as the absurdness, the psychological depiction, and the playful imitation. As for the direction, the expressionist aestheticsis advocated, the truth of the author's feelings is emphasized and the borderline between the art and the life is cleared up. With regard to performance, the assumption, the communication with the audience, the body performance are given adequate attention. Concerning the stage art, the assumption, the communication with the audience, and the free conversion of space-time are equally stressed. The experiment on the artistic form is an important sign via which the Chinese contemporary avant-garde theatre maintains its avant-garde posture.The achievement and the defect of the Chinese contemporary avant-garde theatre are discussed in the concluding part. To the author's understanding, the major achievement of the Chinese contemporary avant-garde theatre is a) to further discuss the essentiality of the theatre art; b) to show various possibilities of development of the Chinese theatre; and c) to accelerate the modernization process of the Chinese theatre. Meanwhile, there are also some obvious contradictions and disadvantages in it. The former appears between "the minority" and the mass, the content and the form, the artistic quality and the commercial quality, while the latter lies in the formulation, the fake avant-garde swaggering through the street, and the weak theory.(The other chapters are omitted)...