Chinese Drama Writing and the Evolution of the Drama Genre

Abstract

Abstract: The researches on Chinese drama style and the drama writing have much to be desired in the scholarship on ancient Chinese drama studies. This paper approaches the genre of Chinese drama from the perspectives of genetic and typological relationships, and it proposes that Chinese ancient drama form matures as the result of literati's integrating folk arts into the drama writing. In terms of narrative methods and structure, the paper analyzes the essential features of drama-prose style (xiwen) from the Southern Song to Yuan Dynasties, the plot-content style (guanmu) in the variety drama (zaju) and the legend style (chuanqi) in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The different styles of drama texts are divided into two genres. One is the legend genre which is written as a legend, while the other genre is poetic drama which is written with a poetic thinking. Chinese ancient drama texts are a combination of dramatic plot with poetry, which gradually mature through the collaboration between literati's writing and the performance practice.

Key words: drama writing, drama style, evolution, integration of the refined and the popular

Li Changji. Chinese Drama Writing and the Evolution of the Drama Genre[J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2014, 34(6): 104-129.

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