Inheritance And Localization: A Study Of The Intertextuality Between Modern Chinese Drama And Ibsen’s A Doll’s House

Western Drama has contributed to the transformation of Chinese drama from classical form to modern form.From its inception,modern Chinese drama has had a positive attitude towards learning widely from other countries and adhered to the positive attitude of absorbing Western drama theory and improving Chinese traditional opera art.This has resulted in a unique geographical outcome in the development of world theatre.Ibsen entered the vision of Chinese cultural revolutionaries as a realist playwright and had an irreplaceable impact on the establishment and growth of modern Chinese drama.A Doll’s House(1879),his literary masterwork,has been widely disseminated and adapted in China.Given their close connection,there are unmistakable parallels between modern Chinese drama and Ibsen’s drama.The majority of the domestic scholars’ research on the relationship between modern Chinese drama and Ibsen’s drama focuses on the influence of Ibsen’s drama on modern Chinese drama.However,domestic scholars have less research on the localization characteristics of Chinese social,historical,cultural and aesthetic elements when Chinese modern drama draws on Ibsen’s drama.Based on the theory of intertextuality,this thesis discusses the similarities and differences between modern Chinese drama and A Doll’s House from the aspects of character image,theme,and drama structure,and analyzes the intertextuality between modern Chinese drama and Ibsen’s drama,so as to expound the inheritance and transcendence of modern Chinese drama to Ibsen’s drama and study Chinese social,historical and cultural elements integrated into Chinese modern drama in drawing lessons from Ibsen’s drama.The purpose of this thesis is to re-examine and rationally analyze the relationship between modern Chinese drama and Ibsen’s drama from a new perspective,which will help us understand the theme and creative techniques of modern Chinese drama better,and provide guidance and inspiration for the cross-cultural adaptation of Western drama in China.The first chapter introduction elaborates on the background of the thesis,research significance,research questions,and innovation,as well as the theoretical approach and lay-out of the thesis.Chapter two analyzes the different characters in The Greatest Events in Life and A Doll’s House with the theory of masculinity.The third chapter discusses the theme of women’s awakening in Three Rebel Women and A Doll’s House and the different writing purposes of the two dramas.The fourth chapter analyzes the different dramatic artistic features used by Sunrise and A Doll’s House from the perspective of dramatic creation techniques.The major findings of the thesis are as follows.In the characters’ aspect,the hegemonic men in The Greatest Events in Life and A Doll’s House are similar.However,due to different social and historical contexts,the marginal males in The Greatest Events in Life are endowed with the important significance of leading the awakening of women by the author,while the marginal male is only a bystander and does not provide any help in A Doll’s House.In the two plays,women have great differences in identity and personal choice.In expressing the theme of women’s awakening,both Three Rebel Women and A Doll’s House point out that women are in the same predicament and status,but the difference is that Guo Moruo’s writing purpose is to oppose the feudal system of “three obediences” that restricts women’s freedom and map the essence of the New Culture Movement’s anti-feudalism.In terms of dramatic techniques,Tsao Yu broke through A Doll’s House’s closed structure and used the portrait exhibition structure and poetic style to create Sunrise.Cao Yu’s creation has both Chinese and Western drama theory aesthetics,which shows that modern Chinese drama has matured from the initial stage.It can be seen that while drawing on and adapting Ibsen’s plays,modern Chinese drama is not mechanically copying and plagiarizing Ibsen’s plays,but creatively integrating elements of Chinese society,history and culture,aiming to reflect and solve modern Chinese social problems and reflect the artistic characteristics of Chinese drama.