|
週次 |
日期 |
單元主題 |
|
第2週 |
3/2 |
The Origin of Chinese Drama and the Relations between Theater and Shuochang wenxue.
What are the origins of drama as a genre of literature and of plays as a genre of performance? To what extent is the development of extensive narratives in shuochang wenxue a precondition for the development of mature plays? What are the earliest Chinese plays scripts that have been preserved? To what extent are narratives shaped by genre characteristics, and how are genre characteristics shaped by performance conventions? How did the genre conventions of shuochang wenxue (for instance zhugongdiao) help to shape the formal features of drama, and how did the genre conventions of zaju and chuanqi in their turn impact the content of shuochang wenxue works? |
|
第3週 |
3/3 |
Northern Drama, Southern Drama, and Popular Drama in 1250-1450.
What are the major dramatic genres of the period 1250-1450? How popular were zaju and xiwen? What do we mean when we call a theatrical genre popular? Was there a third genre of theater that has left no dramatic texts but that was truly popular? If so, was zaju an urban elite genre? When and how did it come to be performed in Southern China (the Jiangnan area)? Can we establish links between the social backgrounds of specific theatrical genres and their contents? |
|
第4週 |
3/9 |
The Archaeological Record and the Textual Record on the Development of Drama in Northern China.
Can we use the textual record on early theater to explain the theater-related archaeological finds from the Jin and Yuan dynasties? To what extent do these archaeological finds explain our textual materials? How do we deal with the fact that our textual materials, spotty as they are, mostly deal with performances in the capitals while the archaeological materials mostly derive from the provinces (especially from Southern Shanxi)? |
|
第5週 |
3/10 |
Grouping Plays and Grouping Playwrights
Since early on critics have grouped texts and their authors on the basic of stylistic criteria. Can such criteria been connected to the contents and functions of plays? And if certain types of plays can be related to specific functions, can they also be related to specific venues of performance and specific audiences? Is it possible to classify authors in professional groups on the basis of their works and the limited biographical data we have? And what are the changes according to time and region? |
|
第6週 |
3/16 |
Northern Drama in the Ming: the Textual History of Yuan Drama
What happened to zaju in the Ming dynasty? Why was zaju adopted as court drama and not Southern drama? What happened to zaju at the imperial court and how did this affect the text of the plays? What happened when qu came to be seen by Ming literati as the representative genre of literature of the preceding Yuan? How were zaju plays edited when they were printed for reading? Why did Zang Maoxun’s Yuanqu xuan establish itself as the standard anthology of Yuan drama? |
|
第7週 |
3/17 |
Zhu Youdun and Southern Zaju
How helpful is a dynastic label in de understanding of theatrical developments? How long did the Northern zaju contine to be performed? Are the plays of the first century of the Ming best understood as a continuation of the Yuan or as a foreshadowing of later developments? And what about the plays of the second century of the Ming? How to explain the emergence of Southern zaju? |
|
第8週 |
3/23 |
How subversive is the Xixiang ji? The Chinese Study of Early Drama in the 20th century
The Xixiang ji was widely performed and repeatedly printed in premodern times, but modern scholarship often claims that the Xixiang ji was a subversive text. How to explain this contradiction? Is all vernacular literature popular literature? Is all vernacular literature by its very nature subversive? Why did the critics of the May Fourth generation claim that the Xixiang ji was a subversive text? How should we understand the prohibitions of drama from premodern times? What was actually prohibited and how strictly were prohibitions enforced? |
|
第9週 |
3/24 |
Translations and adaptations of Early Chinese Drama in the West
What were the criteria for the selection of early plays for translation in the 18th , 19th and 20th century? What was the reception of these plays? How were these plays adapted for performance, and what was the impact of these performances on Western theatrical practices? How did the reception of these plays in the West impact the early study of traditional theater in China? |