From the theater of improvisation to the creation of plays: ways of the emergence of dramatic text in Malay literature

Abstract

The subject of the research in the article is the process of the origin of the national drama of Malaysia. The object of the research is information on the history of the Malay and Indonesian city theater and works of Malay literature of the first half of the twentieth century. The author examines in detail the long-term changes that took place in the Malay theatrical tradition and the factors that contributed to the emergence of written dramatic texts.The purpose of the study is to determine the mechanism of transition from the unscripted theatrical tradition to dramaturgy. Particular attention is paid to the changes in the repertoire of the Malay city theater associated with the emergence of a new type of plots. The ways of their penetration into the representations of the city theater are analyzed, their influence on the nature of performances is considered. The emergence of a dramatic text in the theatrical tradition of British Malaya has not yet been studied either in domestic Malaistics or abroad, which determines the novelty of the work. The study uses an integrated approach combining the consideration of data on theater and literature. The cultural-historical method fits the available data into the context of the epoch. The comparative method allows us to determine the results of contacts between related theatrical phenomena of the Malay world (Bangsawan theater and the Istanbul Comedy Theater). The birth of drama is seen as a transition from the existence of unscripted spectacles to the creation of plays. As a theoretical basis for the analysis, the concepts of transitivity are used, which make it possible to present this phenomenon taking into account national specifics. This is the definition of a transitional aesthetic phenomenon as an artistic presystem, introduced by A.V. Lukov, as well as the structural gradation of the literary transition, presented in the work of A. A. Stepanova on the basis of generalization of a number of previously proposed approaches. As a result of the research, the main factor that contributed to the birth of Malay drama is revealed – the appearance of realistic plots in the repertoire of the previously unscripted theater of the transitional type. According to the findings of the study, there were two sources of these plots: external borrowings and the interaction of theater with literature.