On The Historical Narrative Of Tom Stoppard’s Plays

Tom Stoppard(1937-)is a famous contemporary British playwright.His plays are characteristics of reviewing traditional ideas,parody classical texts and witty language,forming a unique "Stoppardianism" style.Historical narration is an important part of Stoppard’s plays.In his opinion,literature has more unique advantages than historical works.Literature can avoid the textual historical facts and reach the historical truth in aesthetic view.Stoppard’s grand historical consciousness makes his plays more and more heavy in intertextuality,and his subversion and revision of the old view of history inspire readers’ introspection.Therefore,this thesis examines the formation and values orientation of Stoppard’s historical consciousness,and selects the three plays of Indian Ink,Arcadia and The Invention of Love as the research object.On the basis of detailed reading of the text,this thesis explores the specific connotation and characteristics of historical narration in Stoppard’s plays from the perspective of colonial history,gender history and literary history respectively.The introduction briefly introduces the creation process and achievements of dramatist Stoppard,points out the uniqueness of historical narration in his plays,explains the research value and significance of this topic,and combs the relevant research literature at home and abroad.The research ideas and methods are put forward.The first chapter examines the origin of Stoppard’s historical consciousness.From his personal experience,Stoppard’s pursuit of self-life inspired his attention to history.In his scattered career,he experienced the cultural features and value identity of different regions,so that he could jump out of the stereotype of single-dimensional historical cognition and examine contemporary issues dialectically.In terms of the environment of the times,the Postmodern thought,especially the New Historicism,inspires his doubts about the meta-narration;at that time,some famous writers,such as Edmund Wilson and Rolf Hochhuth,provided a creative reference for Stoppard’s historical narration.The second chapter generalizes the principle of Stoppard’s historical narration.Stoppard was dissatisfied with the interpretation of history in Britain’s mainstream discourse,and he wants to show people another aspect of history.First,he tries to reconstruct history and explore the truth of history by artistic means.Stoppard agrees Aristotle two thousand years ago and believes that his duty is not to describe what had happened,but to describe what might happen.This description,rooted in certainty or necessity,is more real and universal than the superficial truth.Second,he tries to re-examine history and denies the existing stereotypes with artistic standpoint.People are often confined to traditional prejudices and can not give fair evaluation to historical figures or events,let alone some historical discourse for narrow national interests or gender hegemony,as Hayden White put it,create a grand version to hide or replace the truth.Stoppard,in the conscience of the artist,wants to correct the historical record.Third,re-continuing history,facing reality and future with art fables.Stoppard’s plays,judging by history,deny some old historical development views and warn people not to continue history with past prejudices.This doesn’t mean that he holds historical pessimism,on the contrary,his plays look forward to an equal,fair and pluralistic future.The third,fourth and fifth chapters,through the interpretation of Stoppard’s three representative plays,explain the specific connotation and narrative expression of his historical consciousness.Indian Ink focuses on deconstructing traditional colonial history.After the collapse of the colonial system,the British mainstream discourse still maintained a cultural superiority with the patriarchal state of mind.Stoppard is worried about this.He tries to re-examine the relationship between Britain and India,criticize the remaining imperialist nostalgia in Britain,expose the cultural prejudice of "Orientalism" adopted by Britain against India,and deconstruct the old British colonial history writing system.Arcadia focuses on subverting the traditional gender history.For a long time,in the field of science,men always dominate,while women are often excluded.Stoppard,however,stresses that the irrational thinking of women brought important inspiration to scientific research,prompting people to re-look at the relationship between women and science.In the emotional relationship between men and women,Stoppard also breaks through the ethical requirements of women,showing the autonomy of women in emotion.The Invention of Love focuses on correcting the traditional literary history,especially the writer’s evaluation.Stoppard contrasts British scholar Housman with Wilde,both of them had a homosexual complex,but they make different choices and gains different reputations.Unlike secular evaluations,Stoppard affirms Wilde who pursued emotion,and believes that Houseman,though eventually gaining academic fame,is a loser in life.The conclusion further emphasizes the profound insight and aesthetic presentation of history in Stoppard’s plays,opens a new window of historical cognition,and opens a new way for art to express history.