An Unfinished Innovation Effort:the Controversy Over Historical Drama In Seventeen Years Period

From 1958 to 1962,there was a wide discussion about historical drama,which was under the background of the nationalization of drama.Under the attitude of laying more stress on present than the past,participants — including but not limited politicians,historians and artists—discussed important issues such as the concepts,writing methods of historical drama and views of creation and history.It is not purely about the art of historical drama,it is also about new norms of literary creation and new way of historical imagination.Through the sorting of historical materials,combining with the study of the author’s life and creation background,this paper attempts to restore the controversy over historical drama in Seventeen Years Period and discuss the significance of this controversy.This paper is mainly composed of five chapters:The introduction is mainly a comprehensive explanation of the significance of the topic,domestic and foreign research status,research ideas and methods.There is another section on the definition of this controversy.The time range of the controversy in this paper is between 1958 and 1962;the content in this paper mainly focuses on the symposium on historical dramas between 1958 and 1962.As for the form of drama in this paper,it is drama,traditional opera is only analyzed for the theme and the creative theme.The first chapter is mainly about the historical background of this controversy.On the issue of view of history,after the founding of New China,a new point of history emerged,which was based on Marxist view of history.In terms of literary production,the new regime brought all the writers into the system through the system design from top to bottom,and ensured the consistency of the literary creation theme through the collective creation way.For drama,an anti-historical criticism movement was launched.This movement provided useful references for historical plays,drawing the line between historical plays and anti--historical dramas for the subsequent historical drama controversy.The second chapter is about the process combing of this controversy.It was a re-disucssion based on the historical debate in 1940 s.This controversy was created in1957-1958,and it first began with targeted discussions on the creation of several historical dramas.With the emergence of a boom in the creation of historical dramas,literary and artistic publications organized discussions in a planned way,the controversy had reached a climax.From 1963 on,under the slogan of "writing more about thirteen-years period",the controversy subsided.By the 1980 s,the discussion of historical dramas restarted from controversy over historical drama in seventeen years period.The third chapter is the analysis of the key issues in this controversy.It mainly discussed about the concept of historical dramas,the issue of “making the past serve the present”,the evaluation of historical figures,the relationship between historical truth and artistic truth and so on.Among these issues,the core problem is the different understanding of the essence of historical drama.The forth chapter is about the analysis of the reason for the controversy over historical drama in seventeen year period.From the relationship between history and literature,taking drama as history is a very obvious discussion tendency of historians,which is influenced by the reform of style and literary concepts in the process of Chinese history tradition and the modernization of literature.In terms of the relationship between literature and politics,this controversy was under the political guidance and intervention.From the movement of nationalization and the efforts to the world literature,it is the tentative answer of literature and art to China’s problems and Chinese road.The conclusion part is the summary and positioning of this controversy.it has the historical status of connecting the preceding and the following,containing the exploration and imagination of the new literary direction.However,based on the special historical background,this controversy finally presents an unfinished state.