The Theoretical Exploration In The Drama Development Dilemma

In the early 20th century, Chinese and western artists and theorists were all actively seeking a drama outlet when eastern and western traditional dramas fell into the dilemma. Wu Mei, a Chinese drama theoretician and Susanne. K. Langer, an American literary theorist, they all noted the differences and the complementarities between the Chinese and western drama development. Wu Mei advocated learning practical technique of western realism drama on the basis of inheriting the most of traditional drama theories, and Susanne. K. Langer stood for learning the performance manner of eastern dramas while criticizing the western extreme realism dramas. They tried to get rid of the Chinese and western drama development dilemma through learning to each other.This paper compares in system the drama theories of Wu Mei and Susanne. K. Langer. It describes their same view on the emotions, synthesis and integration of drama theories and analyses the different views on the aesthetic pursuit, drama function and accepted theory. It also summarized the value of comparative studies on Wu Mei and Susanne. K. Langer's drama theories:not only can help to grasp the common regularities of the Chinese and western drama development, but also can provide some useful revelation about how to promote the contemporary drama development.