Li Yu "silent Drama" Theoretical Research

The research of Li Yu and his works , which had been long ignored, has become the center of attention in the academic. Yet what is focused most is his traditional opera theory and his achievements in literary creation, very little attention is paid to his creation of novels, especially his theory of novel creation. Therefore ,in this thesis the author tries to probe into Li Yu's opera theory and its meaning for novel creation, and put forward the author's theory of Silent drama, as well as its value in the Chinese history of novel theory, from the viewpoint of the interaction between the Chinese ancient dramas and novels.This thesis consists of the introduction, three chapters, the conclusion and evaluation.The introduction mainly deals with two reasons why I choose this topic, and the relationship of Leisure Mood Expressed by Chance and Silent drama. It also illustrates and researches the basic meaning of Silent drama. I think the similarity between Li Yu's traditional opera and his novels is pursuing "drama", which is also the same aesthetic pursuit of that two sorts of his works.In the second chapter, I comparatively analyzed the political and cultural background of the Silent drama , as well as the philosophy, developing of the opera theory itself and Li Yu's various kinds of encounter and so on. As a result, we can better understand and maintain the social condition and history background of its birth and some of the regularities during the development of Chinese novels. The third chapter probes into the application of Li Yu's opera theory in the creation of Silent dramas, and clearly expresses Li Yu's peculiar theory of novel writing, respectively from the following five respects:"the single hero and one plot in the drama","fictional serial dramas","original and unique conception","various endings","plain language". The fourth chapter makes it more clear for us to apprehend the application of operas in Li Yu's novels and his understanding of the internal relation between operas and novels,by giving facts of Li Yu's practice in rewriting his novels into operas. While the last chapter tries to discuss the position and the influence of Silent dramas in the developing process of Chinese novels, so as to evaluate it fairly and objectively. Of course, this chapter is based upon the last fourth chapters.