Neo-Realism:the Dramatic Style Of David Rabe’s "Vietnam Trilogy"

David Rabe(1940-)is an outstanding contemporary American dramatist.His plays are famous for their war themes,and the most representative of which are the "Vietnam Trilogy",including The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel,Sticks and Bones,and Streamers.This trilogy reveals the reality of American society in the Vietnam War era."For a long time,people have classified the" Vietnamese trilogy "as a realistic drama work,but this article believes that on the basis of absorbing the art of modernist creation,it has forged a creative style of "postmodern realism ",that is," neo-realism ",which is different from traditional realism,thus opening a new direction for the development of contemporary drama.This article takes David Rabe’s "Vietnam Trilogy" as research object,starting from the ideological connotation,characterization,creative techniques,and other aspects.Through textual close reading,it reveals the origin and characteristics of the new realistic drama style of "Vietnam Trilogy".In terms of ideological connotation,Rabe reconsidered the issues of modernity that have plagued people all the time,incorporating an analysis of the social operating mechanism into social criticism,exploring the spiritual and moral world of contemporary American people from both realistic and historical dimensions,giving realism a "new" vitality,and exploring the answers to a series of problems encountered in the post modern era.In characterization,influenced by existentialism and modern psychology,Rabe shifted from the exaltation of subjectivity to the reflection of selfconsciousness,paying particular attention to the essence of human existence,placing people in an absurd environment,focusing on the spiritual world of marginal characters,and shaping a number of non-hero imagesIn terms of creative techniques,Rabe shifted from traditional narrative to pluralistic narrative,not only achieving innovation in the art of drama through the leap of time,space and the fragmented plot structure,but also the clear and straightforward language of the drama,assigning different language patterns to the characters according to their identities,highlighting the characteristics of the times,and achieving innovation in language.In short,this article aims to break the one-way thinking inertia of binary opposition and guide readers to understand Rabe’s dramatic works in a new mode of thinking.Interpreting the "Vietnam Trilogy" from the perspective of neo-realism not only helps clarify the era connotation of the work and its important position in the history of American drama literature,but also provides a new research perspective for drama literature.