The Creation Of Historical Plays In The Modern Context

This dissertation, on the basis of a systemic survey of the creation of Chinese historical plays in the modern context since 1980, makes an in-depth probe into and a careful discussion of the issues concerning the view of history, ethical values, aesthetic standards and the subject matter of women in the creation of historical plays. After that, the author forwards her own views related to them.The creation of modern historical plays features openness and pluralism, however, it should respect history, and present the truth of it to the audience rather than betray it. Contemporary Chinese playwrights recount history by means of suspicion, reflection, subversion, transcendence and ridiculing history, who reconstruct history with modern language, and present history in depth and width on an unprecedented scale. In the meantime, subjective and random account, fabrication and ridiculing of history start to go rampant, with history distorted beyond recognition. The author holds that playwrights, while valuing subjective creativity, should avoid a subjective and random account and distortion of history.In terms of ethics, historical play writing must keep to its own well defined values by favoring benevolence, creating artistic images of moral integrity and human dignity, and enhancing the fine culture of the Chinese nation. Although the contemporary creation of historical plays in China stresses humanity and the transcendence of the traditional values, yet an excessive pursuit of transcendence would possibly lead to the imposition of modern ethics and upon historic figures by justifying their individual desires and destroying traditional virtues and positive values of the Chinese nation.A distinctive feature of the contemporary creation of historical plays is its exposition of human nature. However, the problem is that playwrights, while advocating humanity and revealing its sophisticated inner world, should not avoid their value and historical judgement, instead, they need to present the bright side of human nature other than the dark one, because historical plays must guide audience to benevolence and beauty, but an excessive exposition and beautification of human evils, however faithful it is, confuses good and evil, grace and shame.The other distinctive feature of the creation of historical plays is the portrayal of female characters. In this dissertation, the author suggests that historical play writing should break away from male centrism and pay due respect to women, to the value of their existence, to their aspirations and emotional needs.Contemporary Chinese historical plays make great attempts to explore the significance of women's existence, and to depict their spirit of independence and self-reliance, and their desire for equality between men and women as well. However, as male dominance still has its bearing upon the fate and lives of women, only by means of eliminating the ill impact of male centrism, could women deserve their images fairly and faithfully.