Realistic Plays and Drama Evolution: Yu Shangyuan's Translations of Brander Matthews' Works

The prominent Chinese dramatist Yu Shangyuan is most often credited with launching the National Theatre Movement, a theater campaign in the mid-1920s that championed a reexamination of the artistry and aesthetics of Chinese indigenous drama. However, prior to this movement, Yu Shangyuan published extensively on dramatic literature and the lives and works of Western dramatists. Although most of these articles were marked as original compositions, they consisted largely of translations of foreign works. Particularly, approximately 30 articles were translated from American theater critic Brander Matthews' two books, The Principles of Playmaking, and Other Discussions of the Drama and The Chief European Dramatists. The present study fills a gap in modern Chinese theater historiography by examining Yu Shangyuan's early publications, with a specific focus on his translations of Brander Matthews' works. This detailed textual and contextual analysis reveals that Yu Shangyuan was influenced by an evolutionary literary perspective. His linear consciousness of time and history led him to regard modern realistic drama as the zenith of evolution for drama as an art form. Yu Shangyuan's case demonstrates how translation contributed to the construction of theater history and affected the manner in which theater historians comprehend, describe, and reconstruct theatrical forms and conventions.

關鍵字

Yu Shangyuan ； Brander Matthews ； literary evolution ； realistic drama

並列摘要

戲劇家余上沅因發起著名的國劇運動而享有盛名。國劇運動開展於20世紀20年代中期，倡導重新審視中國本土戲劇的藝術性和美學。事實上，國劇運動前，余上沅已發表大量文章介紹劇本創作法與西方戲劇家及代表作。雖然這些文章多以原創形式呈現，但其中有大量翻譯作品。特別是其中約有30篇文章譯自美國戲劇評論家布蘭德．馬修斯（Brander Matthews）的《戲劇創作原理及其他討論》和《歐洲主要戲劇家》。本文細緻分析了余上沅的早期作品，特別關注他對布蘭德．馬修斯作品的翻譯，以期填補中國現代戲劇史研究在這一課題的空白。對譯文的分析表明，余上沅受文學進化論的影響，產生對時間和歷史的線性認識，將現實主義戲劇視為戲劇進化的頂峰。余上沅的例子表明，翻譯參與了戲劇史的建構，並影響了戲劇史家對戲劇形式和慣例的理解、描述與重構。

並列關鍵字

余上沅；布蘭德．馬修斯；文學進化；戲劇現實主義

參考文獻

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