台灣現代戲劇之同志劇本研究(1988-2010)

Abstract

The contemporary social constraints on the gay community and the gay community’s revolt against the colossal mainstream system are often first manifested in the medium of fiction as locking horns, contending with each other. Homosexual narratives in the literature realm gradually seeped into 1990s’ prose and poetry. Yet, the question remains how homosexual issues have unfolded in script creations. In 1988, Homosexual Love in Chinese, written and directed by Tian QiYuan, initiated the start of Taiwan’s early dramatization of “Homosexual Scripts”. Twenty years on, what is the quantity of “Homosexual Scripts” being accumulated in Taiwan? In comparison to fiction and prose as literature forms, how have homosexual-centered script creations evolved, and what landscapes have they carved out? Social trends are surfacing and re-surfacing one after another. The historical events and their repercussions may present themselves as mirrors for reflection, leaving behind whatever reaction and confrontation, gentleness and malice, seriousness or mockeries that gender dissidents have against contemporary mainstream mechanisms and that have been preserved amidst the lexicon of codings. In contrast to fiction, prose, and poetry, scripts have rarely been read and discussed independently. This dissertation will focus on script creation centered around homosexual issues. ‘Taiwan’ refers to a geographical location where events take place, while ‘Modern Theatre’ refers to the dramatization of contemporary theatre, including theatre productions of all scales, and ‘Homosexual Scripts’, the research direction. This dissertation consists of five major sections: deconstruction of Confucius doctrines and patriarchal thoughts; post-modern contexts; Metonymy for homosexual issues – new interpretations of classical imageries; gender trouble; diaspora of homosexual manifestations. The author attempts to analyze 15 scripts with subject matter ranging from political conflicts and impacts, aesthetics in evolution, new interpretation for classics, multifarious gender presentations, and the exile of homosexuals in a bid to elucidate all unique content and cultural landscapes within the text, bringing to light different gay presences and existences in different eras. Homosexual script creations in the 1980s and 1990s Modern Theatre tended to be more critical. From the 21th century onwards, homosexual script creations gave focus to individual lives and the quest for personal identities, as well as cross dressing, trans-sexual operations, and cross-gender expressions. Along with Taiwanese society’s construction, reversal, coinage, and extension of words like gay and queer, an act of baptism is taking place. Gender is no longer (built on or discussed within) a fixed frame, but in a constant flux. Although the imposing mainstream mechanism is still in place, script creations, in their vast varieties, have offered a brief breathing space and temporary relief. In the meantime, the reflections on these script creations reveal a vast multitude of possibilities in which life expresses and presents itself. We revolve ourselves around life, allowing life to dominate us. And perhaps it is through the attempt at distinguishing between illusions and realities that a flash of creativity can and must be illuminated in a few split seconds. That fleeting clarity is still a ray of sunlight, to which a possibility for survival clings.