| Bali theatre influenced the West theatre of post- modernism through Artaud and his theory of "cruel theater". This dissertation makes this "historical event" a case,to analyze the pattern how the West theatre of modernism was inspired by and developed from the theater of the East,and try to argues that the spirit that the modernism theatre found in Bali or East,is also the spirit they try to revive in West classical theatre. Both the theatre of East and Ancient are the "other" of modern western theatre they use to transcend themselves. The dissertation is composed of mainly three parts:The first part discusses the relation of Bali theatre and Artaud,one of the most important cases the Eastern theater influence the Western theater. The influence went indirectly,through a cruel prophetic,Antonin Artaud and his inspiring academic work . Bali theatre shows different aspects of meanings to different perspectives,from anthropology to theatre. However,theater,as its most remarkable art characteristics,entered into their visual field and became the focus of it. I compare Bali theatre in Artaud's understanding and Bali theatre in reality,reveal that the "discover" of the Bali theatre is actually "invent",Bali theatre is only a metaphor expresses that many artists got more and more conscious of the crisis of theatre losing their central role in social life in modern time.The second part discusses the influence Bali theatre to the post-modernism theater,focuses on the six essences of drama:play,language,interpretation,playhouse,audiences and the actors,theater and life,with the theory of Artaud and the practice of Grotowski,Brook,Mnouchikine,Schechner and Barba as cases to study. All of these prove the inspiration indicated and led the Avant-garde theatre in the second half of 20th century. And the significance of the influence that the Eastern theater gave to the Western theater could be made out from Artaud-Bali theater-West theater in the second half of 20th century.On the base of the discussion in the second part,the third part tries to make the following conclusions. First,Artaud,as the translator of Bali theatre,with all the misreading,should be regarded as one of the most important forerunners who introduce East theatre;Second,the "discovery" which the West theater made to the East theater was also a "revival" of the Greek theater. It is the way a great tradition of art identifies itself;Third,on this foundation,I consider it a dialectics of "Orientalism" and "Originalism",which show the secret of modernism;last,my study of Bali theater-West modern theater-Greek theater,touched the essential meaning of the drama. It wanted to revert to Utopia from the functional crisis in the name of history. |
