drama

A comprehensive art has two meanings: in a narrow sense, it refers to a stage performance form that started with ancient Greek tragedies and comedies, first developed in European countries, and then became popular all over the world. Drama in English and drama in China. Broadly speaking, it also includes the traditional stage performances of some countries and nationalities in the East, such as China's operas, Japanese kabuki, Indian classical dramas, and Korean singing operas.

As an integral part of human culture, drama is closely related to other cultural elements. Both European dramas and national dramas in some eastern countries can be traced back to ancient sacrificial songs and dances.

European drama originated from song and dance performances in ancient Greek sacrificial ceremonies. By the end of the 6th century BC, when Ariang was performing Ode to Dionysus at the Spring Festival, he improvised poems to answer the questions raised by Captain Song. Thespis added an actor to the song and dance of Ode to Dionysus. He took turns to play several roles and talked with Captain Song, which was considered as the original dramatic factor. Aeschylus, the founder of ancient Greek tragedy, increased the number of actors to two, gradually reducing the factors of song and dance narration and increasing the factors of drama, and drama was formed here as an independent art style. In ancient Greece, when festivals were held in winter, people dressed as birds and animals marched in the carnival, which was called "the song of the carnival team". By the 6th century BC, it developed into a farce in Greece and was regarded as a primitive comedy. In 487 BC, a comedy was officially staged at the sacrificial ceremony in Athens. There were only three actors at that time, and the role of chorus was not as important as in the tragedy. In the development of ancient Greek comedy, the role of chorus is getting smaller and smaller.

The origin of oriental national drama is later than that of European drama. In India, the performances at the folk games to meet the gods before 1 century BC are regarded as the seeds of national drama. By the 2nd century, the appearance of the first drama theory work "Dance Theory" was considered as a sign of the maturity of drama art ... The blood relationship of China traditional opera art can be traced back to many elements, such as singing and dancing, witchcraft and so on. By the Tang Dynasty, ancient songs and dances had developed into small-scale musical dramas, while Qin Zhou's wonderful performances had developed into legionary teleplay. It is generally believed that the symbol of the development of China opera into a complete and independent artistic style is12nd century Yongjia Zaju in Song Dynasty, also known as Southern Opera. In Japan, ancient people used masks to dress up as gods or demons and prayed for a bumper harvest. Some people think that this primitive art is the embryonic form of national drama. About 12 century, the ape music increased acrobatics, singing and dancing. Nenglie and Kuangyan, founded in the late Middle Ages, have a strong sacrificial nature. Kabuki, which originated at the end of 16, has developed into a large-scale classical drama combining song and dance with dialogue by the middle of 17.

Drama is related to singing and dancing. In the process of the formation and development of European drama, the elements of song and dance gradually decreased and developed into a drama form with body movements and dialogue as the basic means; In the formation and development of oriental national drama, the drama elements are gradually strengthened, but a large number of song and dance elements are retained, forming the artistic characteristics of paying equal attention to lyricism and drama. This difference between eastern and western drama constitutes two branches of human drama culture.

The development of western drama originated from ancient Greece. The history of western drama can be divided into: ancient Greek and Roman drama, medieval drama, Renaissance drama, classicism drama, Enlightenment drama,19th century drama, modern drama and contemporary drama. In some historical periods, according to different styles, many schools can be divided.

Ancient Greek drama is the childhood of human drama and the first prosperous period of human drama, and many tragedies and comedies have been handed down. Famous tragic writers include Aeschylus, Sophocles and euripides. Famous comic writers include aristophanes and Minand. In ancient Rome, drama creation and performance were also very prosperous. The main playwrights are Plautus and Terrence.

The Middle Ages in Europe was a historical period of feudal autocracy, and the basic content of drama creation and performance was to publicize religious concepts and moral preaching. Among them, religious dramas developed from singing poems in church ceremonies are mostly aimed at propagating teachings. A variant of religious drama is miracle drama, which is permeated with religious and moral propaganda in various legendary plots; Another variation of it is a mysterious drama based on the legends of Jesus and saints. The main purpose of moral drama is to turn from abstract moral preaching to criticism of social morality. This kind of moral drama is very popular in a large range of countries and for a long time. Comics are characterized by secular life and spicy social satire. Fool's drama is also famous for its satire, which developed from folk drama and then flowed into the city. Although this historical period is very long, there are few excellent works left.

Europe14 ~16th century is an important period in the history of human cultural development. A powerful humanistic movement originated in Italy quickly swept across European countries. Starting from the historical requirements of opposing feudal autocracy, church authority and asceticism, it affirms people's value, praises people's rationality and wisdom, and advocates people's pursuit of secular happiness and personal freedom. The humanistic movement promoted the high development of literature and art, and also formed the second prosperous period in the history of drama. The European dramas in this period were mainly British and Spanish, and the main playwrights were C. Marlowe, W. Shakespeare, B. Jonson, L. de rueda (about 1505 ~ 1565) and L. F. de Vega I. Kalpio (1565). Among them, many of Shakespeare's plays are treasures in the world drama treasure house.

By the17th century, European drama had entered the classical period. At that time, France was a unified hierarchical monarchy, and a high degree of centralization needed literature and art to serve it. French drama developed in this political environment has become the banner of classicism. At the same time, the humanistic trend of thought in the European Renaissance also had a far-reaching impact on classical playwrights. Classical drama emphasizes the expression of rationality and humanity. Tragedy and comedy have strict boundaries and cannot be confused. It puts forward a three-unified structural model, emphasizing the simplicity and elegance of language. The main playwrights in this period are Gao Naiyi, Moliere and Racine.

/kloc-During the Enlightenment in Europe in the 0/8th century, dramatic art developed in France, Germany, Italy and Britain. In France, Diderot, the leader of the Enlightenment, put forward the program of establishing civic drama and serious comedy according to historical requirements, while playwright Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais provided a practical example for this new drama. In Germany, G.E. Lessing became the founder of national drama, and in the 1970s, the Rush Movement produced great playwrights J.W. von Goethe and J.C.F Schiller. The achievements of English Enlightenment drama are far from the glory of Renaissance, and moral criticism and propaganda make a lot of dramas have a didactic flavor. Comedy writers H Fielding (1707 ~ 1754), O Goldsmith and r·b· Xie Lidan are the representatives. In Italy, the long-term popular tradition of impromptu comedy produced an enlightening playwright C. goldoni, whose comedies had a great influence on later generations.

/kloc-in the 0 th and 9 th centuries, European drama was divided into two major schools: romantic drama and realistic drama. Romantic drama emphasizes subjective inner life and creative freedom. Representative writers include French V Hugo, A de Winnie (1797 ~ 1863), A de Miao Sai, Dumas, German H von Kleist and Russian A.C Pushkin. 19, a realistic drama developed after the 1930s, pays more attention to objectivity and the truth of details. It emphasizes the reproduction of the whole person and attaches importance to the personality characteristics of the person. In Europe, realistic playwrights include Ibsen, Dumas, Bernard Shaw and John Galsworthy, Nikolai Nikolai Gogol, ostrovsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov and Gorky. Closely related to realistic drama is naturalistic drama. The creative principle of this school is similar to realism, but it emphasizes the study and expression of people's spiritual life by experimental methods and explores people's instinct from the perspective of physiology and pathology. Zola of France is an advocate of naturalistic novels and dramas, and hauptmann of Germany and Strasbourg of Sweden are also influenced by him.

After 19, many schools of drama in the world competed and absorbed each other. Western drama in this historical period can be divided into modern and contemporary with World War II as the boundary, and can also be collectively called modern drama. /kloc-the realistic drama of the 0/9th century has been inherited and developed in the new historical period, and its styles are becoming increasingly diverse. The playwrights belonging to this genre mainly include Mrs. A. Gregory of Ireland, F. Wolff and B. Brecht of Germany, L. Pilandero of Italy and F. Durham Matt of Switzerland. At present, American TV plays tend to catch up with others. O 'Neill, known as the father of modern American drama, has created a large number of realistic dramas and works belonging to other schools. Other realistic playwrights include C. Odets, L. Hailmann, A. Miller, T. Williams and W. Eng (19 13 ~ 1973). There are many new schools coexisting with realistic drama, such as symbolism, expressionism, futurism, surrealism, existentialism, absurdity and so on, which can also be collectively called modernist drama. The birth of these new schools has profound social reasons and is influenced by modern philosophy and psychology. As the product of an aesthetic trend of thought, they are both homogeneous and have their own unique views. Most of them appear as negative images of realistic drama, which has a great influence on realistic drama. Symbolic drama is represented by Belgian maeterlinck, and Irish singer also belongs to this genre. Expressionist playwrights mainly include German G Kaiser, E Toler and Czech K Capec, such as O 'Neill and Brecht, who also fell in love with this genre. The founder of futuristic theatre is Italian F.T. marinetti (1876 ~ 1944). His works are numerous, but of little value. The birthplace of surreal drama is France, and the main playwrights are G Apollinaire and J Cocteau. The main writers of existential drama, J.-P. Sartre and A. Camus, are existential philosophers, and their creations are also influenced by this philosophical concept. Absurd drama prevailed in Europe and America from 1950s to 1960s. The main playwrights are Irish S. Beckett, Frenchman E. Younescu, Englishman H. Pinter and American E. Albee.

With the development of oriental drama, it is difficult for the national drama of the eastern countries to be included in the above historical stage, while the introduction of western drama is a modern thing.

In Japan, kabuki, which matured in the17th century, is the most complete form of national drama. The drama reform in the early Meiji period began with the improvement of kabuki, and the reformed drama style was called the new school. At the beginning of the 20th century, Hirauchi Xiaoyao set up a literary and art association in 1906, and introduced European drama forms to Japan, which was called new drama. After the First World War, Japanese modern drama flourished, and some schools of western modern drama influenced japanese theatre, but the mainstream was still realistic drama. After World War II, the absurd drama had a great influence on japanese theatre, but realism remained the mainstream. In the 1980s, Japanese dramas were still characterized by the coexistence and common prosperity of new dramas and national dramas. Indian drama in BC12nd century was a period of classical Brahma drama, and the main playwrights were Kalimdor, sudra Gaga, Vishamenton and so on. The second half of17th century to19th century is the modern period of Indian drama, and D. mitra is the founder of modern Bengali drama. After 19 19, it is the modern period of Indian drama. V.vuormaa (1889 ~1969) was once famous for its historical dramas. After World War II, writer Zinger Venaji also wrote plays. In Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, etc. , also has its own national drama and drama imported from the west. The latter two forms are similar, while the national drama has its own characteristics.

China's opera art has a history of more than 800 years, from the Southern Song Dynasty opera, Jin and Yuan zaju, Ming and Qing legends, modern northern opera to modern new opera, it has been constantly multiplying, creating its own stage art in the world drama and making valuable contributions to the world drama treasure house. At the beginning of the 20th century, western drama was introduced into China. 1928, dramatist Hong Shen proposed to name it drama. Marked by the establishment of People's Republic of China (PRC) (PRC) in 1949, China's drama can be divided into two periods: modern and contemporary.

China's modern drama started on the basis of widely absorbing many schools of western modern drama, and gradually formed its own tradition in the wave of social movements and revolutionary struggles. After the May 4th New Culture Movement began, the extensive introduction of western culture (including literature and drama) became a historical requirement. Due to the need of social reform, Ibsen's social dramas were first praised and introduced by China cultural circles. Under the guidance of translation and publication of Ibsen's plays, he created a number of social problem plays in the 1920s, which revealed the real social problems from the perspective of marriage and family, but most of them were naive. In the 1920s, western modernist drama was also introduced into China, and Song Chunfang made outstanding contributions in this respect. At that time, some playwrights were deeply influenced by modernist drama. For example, Tian Han fell in love with western neo-romanticism, and his early works were very symbolic. Guo Moruo once praised German expressionist drama, and his early plays based on myths and historical stories were also expressionist. Since the end of the 20th century, the mainstream of modern drama in China has been the left-wing drama movement, and the relationship between drama creation and performance and the realistic revolutionary struggle in China is more conscious and close. From then on, until the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), China's drama experienced the stages of left-wing drama, national defense drama, War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression drama and liberation war drama. During these 20 years, following the first generation of playwrights such as Tian Han, Guo Moruo, Hong Shen, Yang Hansheng, Ou Yangyuqian, Xiong Foxi and Ding Xilin who rose in the 1920s, Cao Yu, Xia Yan, A Ying, Yu Ling, Chen, Song Zhi, Shi Linghe, Wu Zuguang, Chuen Bun Wong, Shen Fu, Wang Zhenzhi, Hook, Li Bozhao and Du Feng appeared one after another. Their representative works embody the tradition of modern drama in China, and some playwrights and works show the maturity of realistic drama. The performances of China's dramas and outstanding foreign dramas have also trained a large number of outstanding directors, actors and stage artists.

During the period from 1949 to 1966 17, social liberation and stability provided conditions for the development of China's drama. During this period, a large number of new playwrights, directors, actors and stage artists emerged, and the total number of newly created and performed plays reached thousands, reflecting the social outlook of this period. The ten-year turmoil from 1966 to 1976 was a period of decline in drama creation and performance. 1976 After the downfall of the Gang of Four, drama revived rapidly, and a prosperous situation dominated by social drama emerged. Since the 1980s, the wave of reform and opening-up has impacted the field of culture and art, and the creation and performance of drama have begun to explore in many aspects. Some playwrights pay more attention to the deepening of the inner meaning of drama. Some playwrights pay more attention to the experimental exploration of the external form of drama. After 1986, the trend of multi-directional exploration has appeared. During this period, a group of young and middle-aged artists who dared to explore appeared in various fields such as drama director, performance and stage art, which made the stage art present a colorful situation. At the same time of artistic practice and exploration, drama theory research and drama criticism are also unprecedentedly active. This is the inevitable trend of China's drama development in the new period.

In the 4th century BC, Aristotle expressed his understanding of the essence of drama in Poetics. He believes that all art is imitation, and drama is imitation of human behavior. Two centuries later, India's first drama theory work, Dance Theory, also pointed out: "Drama is imitation." /kloc-after the 0/9th century, there have been different opinions about the essence of drama, including audience theory, conflict theory, radical change theory, situation theory and laboratory theory.

The audience says that identifying with the audience is a necessary condition and the essence of drama. French drama theorist F. Sasay is the representative of this concept. He asserted that no matter what kind of drama works, it is for the audience. "Without the audience, there would be no drama", so all the organs of drama must adapt to the audience's appreciation.

The representative figure of conflict theory is the French drama theorist Brent. At the end of 19, Bruntel pointed out that the stage is the place where people's conscious will is exerted, and the exertion of characters' conscious will is bound to encounter obstacles, and the subject must fight against them in order to overcome them, which constitutes a "will conflict", and the essence of drama lies in this. J.H. Lawson, an American drama theorist, attributed the essence of drama to "social conflict in which consciousness and will play a role". He believes that because drama deals with social relations, people's conscious will is bound to be restricted by social inevitability, so the real drama conflict must be social conflict. This concept can be expressed in one sentence: "There is no drama without conflict."

The British drama theorist W. Archer's catastrophe theory denies Brent's "conflict" theory. He equates novel with drama, and thinks that novel is a "gradual" art, drama is a "crisis" art, and drama deals with the sudden changes of human destiny and environment, which is the essence of drama.

As early as the18th century, the French philosopher Diderot used "situation" as the basis of his dramatic works. When Hegel talked about the characteristics of drama, he also linked "situation" with "conflict" and emphasized the ontological significance of situation. The existentialist philosopher and playwright J.-P. Sartre called his drama "situational drama" and described the object of the drama as people's choice in the situation. B Brecht regards drama as a scientific method and thinks that drama is a laboratory to test human behavior in a specific situation. This concept also defines the essence of drama from a specific angle.

Form In ancient Greece, art was divided into music, painting, sculpture, architecture and poetry, and drama was classified as poetry. The real drama art should include poetry (literature), music, painting, sculpture, architecture, dance and other artistic elements, so it is called comprehensive art.

Every art has its own special means of expression, thus forming the external form of image. Drama, as a comprehensive art, combines various artistic expressions, and their direct and external manifestations in the complex are as follows: ① literature. Mainly refers to the script. ② plastic arts. Mainly refers to scenery, lighting, props, clothing, makeup. ③ Music. Mainly refers to sound, episode, music, etc. In theatrical performances, there are also tunes and vocals in operas and operas. ④ Dance. Mainly refers to the dance elements contained in the art of dance drama and opera, which are transformed into the performing art of actors-the action art in drama.

Various artistic factors in drama play different roles, and their status in the whole is unequal. In the drama complex, the actor's performance art is in the center and dominant position, and it is the noumenon of drama art. The means of performance art-body movements and lines-are the basic means of drama art, and other artistic factors are melted by noumenon. Script is the basis of drama performance. As a literary form, it can be read like a novel, but its basic value lies in its performability. A script that can't be performed is not a good play. The value of musical elements in drama performance, whether it is interlude, soundtrack or sound, mainly lies in the synergistic effect of actors shaping the stage image. The plastic arts elements in drama performance, such as scenery, lighting, props, costumes, makeup, etc., also play a specific auxiliary role in shaping the stage image of actors from different angles. Taking the actor's performance art as the noumenon, it absorbs and integrates various artistic elements to form the external form of drama art.