Date of Award
Fall 2023
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Department
Comparative Literature
First Advisor
Krista Van Fleit
Second Advisor
Yvonne Ivory
Abstract
After nearly vanishing from the Chinese literary world map for thirty years from 1949 to 1979, Eugene O’Neill’s works underwent a reevaluation and resurgence in the reform era of the 1980s. This decade witnessed a wide range of introductions to, research on, translations, and productions of O’Neill’s play in the Chinese theatrical and cultural landscape. Chinese theater practitioners staged some thirty adaptations of O’Neill’s works in both domains of spoken drama and traditional opera, including productions by colleges, state-owned troupes, and independent theater groups. This dissertation contextualizes some of O’Neill adaptations in the socio-cultural context of the transitional period and explores how these theatrical practices participate in the development of drama education, the transformation of theater troupes, the reform of theatrical concepts and movements, and the dynamics of Sino-US relations. Based on my archival research, I call attention to the production elements beyond textual analysis, and to the political, economic, and cultural forces of 1980s China that shaped the revived enthusiasm for O’Neill’s plays. This dissertation investigates how Chinese dramatists selectively assimilated and creatively adapted O’Neill’s works as an external cultural influx in the major modernization efforts of contemporary Chinese theater. More specifically, in the three content chapters, I examine the departure from the ideological constraints and theatrical conventions influenced by the socialist paradigm in productions faithful to O’Neill’s texts; the innovative staging and the transition from realism to modernism in the more explorative renditions; and the operatic adaptations of O’Neill’s works as a case of “horizontal borrowing” in the reform of traditional theater. The humanistic themes, various dramaturgical techniques, and exploration of the truth of life in O’Neill’s works resonated with the “humanism fever” and the agenda of modernism in 1980s China. Chinese adaptations of Eugene O’Neill serve as a product of, a catalyst for, and a microcosm of the multifaceted transformation of contemporary Chinese theater under Western influence in the 1980s. I argue that Chinese playwrights and theater practitioners consciously engaged in adapting O’Neill’s works to revitalize and modernize Chinese theater.
Rights
© 2024, Shuying Chen
Recommended Citation
Chen, S.(2023). Eugene O’Neill Returns: Theatrical Modernization and O’Neill Adaptations in 1980s China. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/7576