The Christian Elements Of Cao Yu’s Dramas In The Fusion Of Horizons Perspective

In the field of Chinese modern literature, the research on Cao Yu’s dramas is veryimportant, as the appearing of his dramas mark the maturity of Chinese modern dramaand their significance in Chinese modern drama is beyond question. Among thoseresearches, some are focus on the relationship between Cao Yu and Christian culture,but most literary critics interpret the Christian cultural elements appearing in Cao Yu’sdramas in the surface level, or cite his life experience, without the integration ofChristian culture in deep inner meaning, as they’re limited by the certain socialexperience or preconception, except a few critics who have firsthand experience withChristianity. This thesis adopts the method of Gadamer’s textualism and the theoriesof fusion of horizon to integrate and contrast of his drams’ cultural color andChristianity discourse system.This thesis consists of three parts. The first part introduces the integration ofChristian culture and Chinese modern drama in general, that is, the Christian culturalbackground of Chinese modern drama. This part is divided into three sections: thedrama experiment in early stage of mission schools, the vernacular Chinese inMystery Play and Miracle Play, and the Christian cultural origins of Cao Yu. In fact,this part gives a brief introduction to the Christian cultural background of Cao yu inthe larger sense.The second part presents a detailed cognition of Christian culture elementsdisplayed in Cao yu’s dramas by close reading of text and previous reviews, analyzesand contrasts the same discourses with different meaning in Bible and his dramas. Inthis chapter, we group the Christianity literature in micro and macro sense. With genreintervening of “sinful nature” elements, the pioneer narrative of “confession”consciousness, the mystery setting of “destiny ideal” and powerlessness existence of“Savior”, we analyzes the specific representation form of Christian cultural elementsin Cao yu’s dramas.The third part discusses the dilemmas faced by the representation of Christianityelements in Cao yu’s dramas, including his own spiritual predicament in writing, thetext dilemma that script has more literariness than stagecraft and the acceptancedilemma of misreading or alteration of audiences. Then, we conclude the connectionand difference between the Christian elements in Cao yu’s dramas and Christianculture.