World drama and modern Chinese drama in its broad context

Abstract

Although world literature has been one of the heatedly discussed cutting edge theoretical topics in current international academia, no one has so far dealt with the issue of world drama from a theoretical and comparative perspective. Along with the deepening of the discussion on world literature, different genres of literature should also be paid attention to. Of all the literary genres, drama is more closely related to art and vividly represented and easily disseminated across the border of languages and countries as it, apart from dialogues between characters, appeals to images and music for voices, which is especially characterized by various local Chinese operas. No doubt, modern Chinese drama has formed its unique tradition under the Western influence although it has more or less inherited its legacy in various local operas. Actually, the phenomenon of world drama does exist, but it seems not to have been recognized although drama is easier to move toward the world than novel and poetry as it largely depends on performance and music. In the present article, the author, inspired by David Damrosch and Franco Moretti, tries to put forward his constructed concept of world drama before re-examining modern Chinese drama in this broad context: (1) world drama is the canonical body of the excellent quality national dramas; (2) world drama is the dramatic work that gains in adaptation and creative production and performance; (3) world drama is the dramatic work which could be staged, appreciated and critically discussed by people in the world beyond the limit of space and time.