First, the characteristics of drama literature
Drama is a kind of stage performance art. Without stage and actors, there would be no drama. The performance of a play must first have a script as the basis of stage performance; There must also be scenery, props, makeup, lighting, clothing and effects; Some want music accompaniment; Actors' body movements should have dance factors, and so on. Drama is a synthesis of literature, art, music and dance. Synthesis is a remarkable feature of drama.
The difference between drama and other artistic styles is that it expresses characters, develops stories and reveals established themes through actors' language and body movements. Therefore, the dramatic image created by the actors on the stage is the direct image. This is obviously different from the indirect image that literary works can only obtain through reading and imagination. The directness of the drama image allows the audience to see the real life scenes and the voices and smiles of the characters, hear the voices of the characters, and even directly feel the subtle changes of the characters' emotions. Therefore, the appeal and educational function of drama art are relatively direct and strong. The directness of image is another feature of drama.
After understanding the characteristics of drama, let's study the characteristics of drama literature (that is, the "script" for performance, or "script").
Script is the "foundation" of drama performance, but it does not represent drama, it is only one of the basic factors that constitute drama art. Script belongs to the category of language art and is a literary genre with literary reading value. Generally speaking, the characteristics of drama literature are as follows:
(1) Dramatic literature reflects life in a highly concentrated way, requiring concentrated dramatic plots and intense dramatic conflicts.
The script is not only for people to see, but also for people to perform on the stage. Therefore, the playwright should highly concentrate the characters, time and scenes, that is, in the limited stage space and time, through the characters' language and actions and some scenes, complex contradictions and conflicts will be launched to promote the development of the plot, thus profoundly reflecting the social life and expressing the author's thoughts and feelings. Only in this way can the plot of the work be like a rolling wave, rising again and again, developing compactly and showing the character's character quickly. Only in this way can the works have a "play", which can move people's hearts and attract audiences.
The script takes contradictions and conflicts as the main line, requires the concentration of the plot, requires the direct disclosure of contradictions, and the contradictions develop compactly, quickly pushing contradictions and conflicts to a climax. The contradiction in the drama must be fierce, and we should always firmly grasp the audience and the audience during the performance. Take Guo Moruo's five-act historical drama Qu Yuan as an example. Qu Yuan had a tortuous and complicated life and a long history of tragedy. How can he write it into the script and reproduce it on the stage? Guo Moruo thought twice about this. At first, Guo Moruo wanted to write two books, but as a result of writing, the original plan was completely broken. Guo Moruo himself said: "I was going to write about Qu Yuan himself, but I only wrote about Qu Yuan's day-from early morning to late night. But this day seems to have summed up Qu Yuan's life. " Qu Yuan and Guo Moruo on Creation after Writing Five Acts of Drama, Heilongjiang People's Publishing House, 1982, p. 1 16. How does Guo Moruo sum up Qu Yuan's life in one day? He concentrated the decades-long struggle between the anti-Qin faction and the pro-Qin faction in Chu, and compressed it on the day when Zhang Yi, the envoy of Qin, came to Chu, typifying the contradictions and struggles between the two factions. He cut off the details of historical facts, simplified the process of struggle, highlighted the political struggle between the two factions, and formed a sharp drama conflict. In this way, Qu Yuan's thoughts, behaviors and experiences in one day concisely reflected the face of his life and summarized the tragic history of his life. All these show that drama literature reflects the characteristics of life in a highly concentrated way.
Drama conflict is the life of drama art, and it is through it that drama attracts the torrent of life, arouses the emotional waves of the audience and produces touching artistic power. Gorky said: "In addition to literary talent, drama also needs great ability to cause conflicts of wishes or intentions, and it needs the ability to solve these conflicts quickly with irrefutable logic." Gorky's Literary Letters, Volume II, People's Literature Publishing House, 1965, p.1~12. The "conflict of wishes or intentions" mentioned here is closely related to the character. Drama conflict is determined by the character, and it is also a means to express the character. The author of drama literature, starting from life and according to the needs of specific themes, sharply shows the essential contradictions in life through drama conflicts. ……
(2) The language of drama literature requires individuality and action.
Character language in drama literature is the basic material for shaping characters. Gorky said in On Movie Scripts: "Movie scripts (tragedy and comedy) are the most difficult literary forms to use. The reason why it is difficult is because the script requires each character in the play to express his own characteristics with his own language and actions, without the author's prompt. " Gorky: Selected Literary Papers, People's Literature Publishing House, 1959, p. 243. If we perform on the stage, we can also understand the characters through their expressions and actions, but in the script, we can't describe the expressions and actions of the characters in detail, we can only make some necessary hints, and we can only understand the characters through dialogue and monologues. It can be said that depicting characters in character language is a major feature of the script in terms of means of expression. In the second act of Thunderstorm, I went to Zhoufu to find my daughter Sifeng. Unexpectedly, this is Zhou Puyuan's home. She played with her thirty years ago and then abandoned her. After she and Zhou Puyuan got to know each other, the sharp opposition between their thoughts and personalities was clearly shown through dialogue. This conversation between them is so long that we can explain the problem with just a few quotes.
Park: (suddenly sternly) What are you doing here?
Lu: I didn't come.
Who sent you?
Lu: (grieving) Life, an unfair life sent me here.
Parker: It took you thirty years to find this place.
Lu: (angrily) I didn't call you. I haven't looked for you. I thought you were dead. I didn't expect to be here today. It is my destiny to meet you here again.
Here, Zhou Puyuan showed his cold nature. With his dark and contemptible psychology, he speculated that Lu Shiping had come here, and concluded that the other party must have been coerced. Lu Shiping's answer shows her open mind and resentment towards Zhou Puyuan. Through this wonderful dialogue, it is the basic task of the script dialogue to reveal the sharp opposition between the characters with distinct personalities and different personalities. The psychological activities of the characters in the play can also be expressed through dialogue, and sometimes they can be told directly to the readers through the monologues of the characters. In order to give consideration to both the dramatic effect and the limitation of the dramatic time, the dramatic language must be concise and implicit. Playwrights pay great attention to the tempering of language when writing plays, and strive to make the characters' language concise and expressive, and strive to make the characters' language highly personalized.
Drama language should be able to clearly express the actions of the characters, that is, full of actions. The action required by drama refers to the initiative, enthusiasm and strong emotion of the characters, and it is necessary to show the personality characteristics of the characters from their actions. The language of the script contains rich actions, which can provide a broad performance space for the actors. With these languages, an actor can imagine the actions, expressions and gestures of his role, so that the actor can better shape the image. Of course, the language in drama is also an action, not only the appearance, but also the heart. Because language comes from inner actions (that is, thoughts and feelings), it can also cause ever-changing external actions. Therefore, the characters' language in excellent plays is full of actions, which implies or vividly shows a series of actions of the characters in the play, thus showing their personality characteristics. These languages are not imposed on the characters created by playwrights, but should be what the characters in the play must say under certain circumstances.
Second, the classification of drama literature
There are many kinds of drama literature, which can be classified from different angles according to different standards. According to the capacity, it can be divided into one-act drama and full-length drama; According to different forms of expression, it can be divided into drama and opera; Drama literature can be divided into tragedy, comedy and drama according to the nature of contradictions and conflicts reflected, the expression techniques adopted and the degree of infection to readers. The following are briefly discussed:
(1) tragedy, comedy and drama
Tragedy, comedy and drama are often used in drama criticism, and are also used as aesthetic categories in the analysis of other works of art.
tragedy
Tragedy is mostly manifested in major or profound social contradictions and conflicts, manifested in the fierce struggle between good and evil forces and the temporary victory of evil forces over good forces. Tragedy reflects contradictions that cannot be solved or alleviated, and often ends in the failure or destruction of the leading role because of the disparity in strength in the struggle. As Lu Xun said, "Tragedy destroys the valuable things in life for people to see", On the Collapse of Leifeng Tower, Complete Works of Lu Xun, vol. 1, People's Literature Publishing House, 1957, p. 297. . With the development of the times and society, the content and form of tragedy are constantly developing and changing. In China, there are many excellent works describing tragic contradictions in traditional operas, most of which have strong anti-feudal and idealized endings. For example, Guan Hanqing's Dou E Yuan is an outstanding zaju, which focuses on Dou E's dissatisfaction and her protest. At the expense of young life, Dou E realized a terrible but true truth: "Since ancient times, the yamen has been open to the south, which is understandable!" Her sense of superiority sums up countless unjust prisons in feudal society, which is a profound exposure and criticism of the darkness of feudal society. Dou E's tragedy is not only the tragedy of a good man being destroyed, but also the tragedy of a protester being destroyed. It reached a higher tragic level in tragic art, and it sowed the fire of resistance in the hearts of the oppressed people.