Visualizing an Emotional Realm: Dreamscapes in Chinese Romance Opera

This article focuses on how late Ming dramatists and publishers employed and interpreted dreamscapes to create affective realms. The literary trope of dreams features prominently on the theatrical stage and in the pages of illustrated publications of playscripts. This article examines the illustrations of male dreamscapes in such Ming dynasty theatrical texts as Autumn Nights for the Tang Emperor: Rain on the Parasol Trees, Romance of the Western Chamber, Sorrow in the Han Palace, and Dream of Yangzhou. This article first discusses the two most common modes of male dreamscape in Yuan and Ming operas. The first mode introduces a dream scenario as a means to recall a happier moment from earlier in the play, and the second mode imagines a new alternative reality that functions to supplant the more tragic circumstances depicted in the main storyline. Centered upon images, this study then elaborates on how the motif of the female gaze is used by male playwrights to visually transform female characters from an object of desire to a desiring subject. Through the depiction of the female gaze which traverses the boundary between dream and reality, these Ming illustrations became sites for men within and outside of the play to project their desire of being desired.

關鍵字

visual culture ； opera ； female gaze ； printing culture ； dreamscape

並列摘要

本文以明代印行的戲本為主要研究對象，探討晚明的戲曲家與發行商如何運用及闡釋男性夢境（dreamscape），以創造兩性的情感空間。夢境作為諸多中國古代戲劇文學的重要情節之一，以各種形式多次被呈現於舞台上與話本中。筆者以《梧桐雨》、《西廂記》、《漢宮秋》、《揚州夢》等戲劇作為研究文本，探討明代刊物中以男性為主體的夢境插圖。本文首先闡述元明戲劇中塑造男性夢境最常見的兩種模式：其中一種夢境時光回溯到離別發生前更早的節點，第二種夢境則塑造一個替代腳本（alternative scenario），合理地消解現實的悲劇。其次，本文以圖像為中心，重點討論其中「女性凝視」（female gaze）的母題如何使男性夢境中的女方由慾望的客體轉為視覺上的主體。通過描繪女性穿越夢境與現實的視線，這些明代戲劇插圖成為一種對同時代男性文人被欲求之渴望的顯像。

並列關鍵字

視覺文化；戲曲；女性凝視；出版文化；夢境

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