The voice of ten years of history: A narrative-semiotic approach to the Eight Revolutionary Model Plays

Abstract

In this article, the author uses a narrative-semiotic approach to discuss the Eight Revolutionary Model Plays of China's Cultural Revolution, which left profound but sometimes negative influences on the lives of Chinese people. Because of the political upheavals of the time, the Eight Revolutionary Model Plays dominated the cultural stage during this special period of Chinese history. However, they have become popular again in recent years -an interesting cultural phenomenon that deserves academic observation. Phelan's three narrative voices (mimetic, thematic, and synthetic) are used for narrative analysis and it is determined that these model plays primarily use the thematic voice. Jakobson's semiotic theory of six factors within the speech event is used for semiotic analysis and the result is that each of the six factors has polyphonic features. The conclusion is that although the plays were originally made for political purposes, with time as well as people's appreciation and consumption they have become part of Chinese culture. In this sense, one can say that art, like language, is also a kind of convention.