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“The Chinese response to Samuel Beckett (1906-89)” (Publication, 2011)

Year

2011

Text

Lin, Lidan ; Zhang, Helong. The Chinese response to Samuel Beckett (1906-89). In : Irish studies review ; vol. 19, no 4 (2011). (Beck22)

Type

Publication

Contributors (2)

Lin, Lidan  (um 2011) : Professor of English, Indiana University Purdue University, Hangzhou Normal University

Zhang, Helong  (um 2011) : Professor of English, Associate Director Institute of Literary Studies, Shanghai International Studies University

Mentioned People (1)

Beckett, Samuel  (Dublin 1906-1989 Paris) : Irischer Schriftsteller, Dramatiker, Nobel-Preisträger

Subjects

Literature : Occident : Ireland / References / Sources

Chronology Entries (17)

# Year Text Linked Data
1 1960-2006 Samuel Becket and China : general.
Lin Lidan ; Zhang Helong : Beckett in the 1960s showed the monolitic tendencies of misunderstanding and refjection, his reception in the mid-1970s and 1980s took off in more diverse directions, with some scholars showing the initial signs of serious interestin Beckett. In the period 1977-1990, over fifty translations of and criticisms on Theatre of the Absurd, and over twenty criticisms on Beckett's drama were published. These translations and criticisms constituted the major trend in Beckett studies during the period. A the same time, the Theatre of the Absurd and Beckett's plays became the focus in Chinese scholars' introduction to Western modernist literature and arts.
Chinese academics seemed willing to affirm the aesthetic value of Beckett's experimental dramatic techniques, which they saw were mostly anti-theatre in the sense that these techniques effectively dismantled realistic dramatic techniques by eroding the teleological and logical development of plots. They continued to betray a lack of understanding regarding the themes of Beckett's plays and the relationship between the themes and the experimental techniques. The general critical trend of the period tends to lament the hopeless tone underlying Beckett's plays and to align the deplorable human conditions in his plays to those in the Western world. For many Chinese academics, Beckett's experimental techniques must be scrutinized for how they were used to dramatise the bleak human conditions in the bourgeoisie Western world.
The studies of Beckett's drama in the 1990s continued mainly in two directions : while some critics continued to interpret Beckett's plays along the lines of absurdity, hope, and quest thematically, as well as of anti-theatre, anti-tradition, and anti-art technically, a trend prevalent in the 1970s and 1980s, a few critics endeavoured to move beyond these established critical parameters by broadening critical perspectives and by experimenting with new approaches. Shifting the focus to language, structure, narrative, and dialogue in Beckett's plays, these critics seemed able to penetrate deeper into Beckett's artistic design and, in so doing, to reveal their aesthetic value.
During the early 1980s, only a small number of criticisms were published on Beckett's short fiction, and critics tended to read it as anti-fiction.
The 1990s saw a significant leap forward in terms of the achievements in the studies of Beckett's fiction, a leap characterized by Chinese academics' efforts to shrug off the previous influence of established concepts of literature and of the leftist ideology to gain independent voices.
2000- : Beckett, as the representative writer of the Theatre of the Absurd school and as Nobel laureate, became a popular object of study for both college teachers and graduate students, with a number of over two hundred essays published, of which over one hundred essays have been devoted to Waiting for Godot. Beckett's plays attracted more critical attention than his fiction, with Waiting for Godot enjoying more popularity than his other plays.
Chinese academics responded to Beckett's centenary celebration in 2006 with much enthusiasm and vigour.
2 1963 Dong Hengxun. Xi ju yi shu de duo luo : Faguo fan xi ju pai [ID D30771].
Dong Hengxun mounts a poignant attack on the French anti-theatre : deviation from realist dramatic tradition ; thematic and artistic absurdity ; pessimistic outlook on life. He further labels this school 'one of the most popular decadent literary schools in the contemporary capitalist world', and one that represents not only a pessimistic outlook but also vicious 'denigration of the world's progressive forces'. Dong deems Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot a quintessential showcase of French anti-theatre. For Dong his plays in general and Waiting for Godot in particular 'are full of riddles, some of which Beckett himself cannot solve'.
3 1978 Zhu, Hong. Huang dan pai xi ju shu ping [ID D30773].
In contrast to the traditional bourgeoisie literature that tends to place man at the centre of the universe, Beckett's play Waiting for Godot lays emphasis on man's vulnerability in an absurd world. The two-act play well illustrates the general philosophical attributes of absurdist plays : an agnostic world, an unpredictable destiny, man's abject conditions, meaningless behavious, and the wish for death.
4 1983 Yi, Wubing. Lüe lun Deng dai Geduo ji qi ta [ID D30774].
The techniques in Waiting for Godot successfully presented the social reality of an absurd contemporary Western society. The absurd themes and techniques are seamlessly one. However, the play was informed by the bourgeoisie philosophy, particularly its idealism and mysticism. It portrays irrational and illogical characters, and it promotes 'unconscious instincts', thus resulting in a play that is opaque and even harmful to prevent the people from knowing and reforming the world.
5 1983 Qu, Shijing. Beikete de fan xiao shuo [ID D30775].
The first critical stuy of Beckett's Trilogy, in which Qu read the three novels in the context of anti-fiction, noting that Beckett's characters were 'dehumanized human beings thrown into existence in the world of existential philosophy, who represent the decadent and twisted ideology of the bourgeois. Beckett's methods of composition are not only irrational but abstract.
6 1984 Liu, Zhongde. Cong fan xiao shuo pai zuo jia Bekaite jin zhu shi bai tan qi [Beckett]. [ID D30776].
Liu borrowed the concept of anti-fiction in his essay. Based on his analysis of the characters, themes, self-assertion, and unconsciousness, Liu used the story as an example to mount his biting attack on those critics who were sympathetic to modernist literature at the time.
7 1984 Chen, Jia. Tan huang dan pai ju ben Deng dai Geduo [ID D30777].
It is precisely due to Samuel Beckett's use of unprecedented representational techniques, and, to a larger degree, to the author's portrayal of the suffering vagrants and slaves as ignorant and docile human beings that Waiting for Godot became highly acclaimed in the circle of Western literature. Yet, such portrayal of characters only suited the needs of Westenr bourgeois ; for this reason, we must not follow the footsteps of foreign critics in paaising the play to the sky as a masterpiece when the play is seriously flawed by its pessimism.
8 1990 Hong Zengliu. Er shi shi ji de xi fo si shen hua : jian lun Beikete de "Deng dai Geduo" [ID D30778].
Hong argues that in Waiting for Godot Beckett designed a uniquely circular dramatic form in which the play's language remains aloof of external referentiality, and argument resonant of early poststructuralist readings in the West.
9 1997 Shu, Xiaomei. Shi lun Beikete xi ju zuo pin zhong di shi kong jie gou [ID D30779].
Shu argues that Beckett's plays surpassed the traditional temporal and spatial designs by making time opaque, circular, and disorderly, and my making the locations obscure, abstract and symbolic.
10 1997 Lu, Jiande. Zi you xu kong de xin ling : Samiaoer Beikete de xiao shuo chuang zuo [ID D30780].
Lu argues that technical innovation and self-dispossession constitute the main motifs of Beckett's fiction, which Beckett uses as an allegory and an instrument to concene an idea ; it is 'the embodiment of Tao that is empty and murky, the Tao as manifestations of ideas.
11 1997 Shu, Xiaomei. Shi hua dui chen huang dan : Beikete Deng dai Geduo xi ju yu yan zhu yao te zheng [ID D30781].
Shu shows that the language of Beckett's plays exhibits a poetic quality and tendencies towards symmetry and absurdity.
12 1998 Hou, Weirui. Yu zhen shi yu huang dan : shi lun Saimiaoer Beikete de huang dan [ID D30782].
Using Murphy, Watt, and Trilogy as examples, Hou points out the Beckett appeals to absurd narrative forms to dramatise the real existential conditions facing Westerners in the modernist era of civilization ; that is, Beckett sheds light on the reality ghrough the medium of absurdity. This esay became a pioneering example for the study of Beckett's fiction as absurdist. It offers a positive assessment of Beckett as a fiction writer : 'Just as the fictional works of Joyce have changed the fate of modernist fiction, the fictional works of Beckett have cast a decided influence on post-war fiction.
13 2002 Shu, Xiaomei. Dian ying yu yan zai Beikete ju zuo zhong di yun yong cong zui hou yi pan lu yin dai tan qi [ID D30783].
Shu provides an analysis of how Beckett makes use of three montage techniques of narrative – parallel, intersection, and repetition – in order to emphasise the play as 'pure theatre' and anti-theatre.
14 2003 He, Chengzhou. Beikete : xi ju dui xiao shuo de gai xie [ID D30784].
He explores the relationship between Beckett's plays and fiction, arguing that Beckett's use of language, characterization, and symbolism in his plays can be traced to his fiction such as Trilogy ; in this sense, his plays can be seen as the rewriting of his fiction.
15 2003 Ran, Dongping. Tu po xian dai pai xi ju de yi shu jie xian : ping Samiaoer Beikete de jing zhi xi ju [ID D30785].
Ran uses the concept of silent play in the analysis of action, plot, and milieu in Beckett's plays, arguing that the absence of centre and subjectivity is symptomatic of postmodern aesthetics.
16 2004 He, Chengzhou. Beikete de yuan xi ju yan jiu [ID D30786].
He appeals to the concept of meta-theatre in the analysis of Waiting for Godot, Endgame, and Krapp's last tape, focusing on Beckett's development of 'a play within a play', 'self-reflexivity', and 'commentary of the play'.
17 2005 Wang, Yahua. A journey to the "ideal core of the onion" : self-exploration and formal experiment in Beckett's novels [ID D30787].
Wang's book investigates Beckett's five novels Murphy, Watt, Molloy, Melanie dies and The unnameable. Focusing on their intertextuality, Wang argues that self-exploration and formal experiment represent the dynamic progression of Beckett's fiction and its postmodern aesthetics.

Sources (20)

# Year Bibliographical Data Type / Abbreviation Linked Data
1 1963 Dong, Hengxun. Xi ju yi shu de duo luo : Faguo fan xi ju pai. In : Qian xian ; no. 8 (1963). [The dramatic arts in decay : the French anti-theater].
戏剧艺术的堕落——法国"反戏剧派" 		Publication / Beck27
2 1964 Ding, Yaozan. Xi fang shi jie de xian feng pai wen yi shi jie zhi shi. In : Shi jie zhi shi ; no. 9 (1964). [The Avant Garde literature and arts in the Western world. Betr. u.a. Samuel Beckett].
西方世界的“先锋派”文艺 		Publication / Beck46
3 1978 Zhu, Hong. Huang dan pai xi ju shu ping. In : Shi jie wen xue ; no 1 (1978). [The theatre of the absurd : a review. Betr. u.a. Samuel Beckett].
荒诞派戏剧述评 		Publication / Beck28
4 1983 Yi, Wubing. Lüe lun Deng dai Geduo ji qi ta. In : Hunan cheng shi xue yuan xue bao ; no. 1 (1983). [Preliminary comments on Waiting for Godot].
略论等待戈多及其它 		Publication / Beck29
5 1983 Qu, Shijing. Beikete de fan xiao shuo. In : Wai guo wen xue bao dao ; no. 3 (1983). [Beckett's anti-fiction].
贝克特的"反小说" 		Publication / Beck30
6 1984 Liu, Zhongde. Cong fan xiao shuo pai zuo jia Bekaite jin zhu shi bai tan qi. In : Qiu suo ; no. 2 (1984). [The lost ones and Samuel Beckett as an anti-fiction writier].
从反小说派作家贝凯特近著《失败》谈起 		Publication / Beck31
7 1984 Chen, Jia. Tan huang dan pai ju ben Deng dai Geduo. In : Dang dai wai guo wen xue ; no. 1 (1984). [On Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett as an absurd play].
谈谈荒诞派剧本〈等待戈多〉 		Publication / Beck32
8 1990 Hong Zengliu. Er shi shi ji de xi fo si shen hua : jian lun Beikete de "Deng dai Geduo". In : Anhui da xue xue bao ; no 1 (1990). [The myth of Sisyphus].
二十世纪的席西佛斯神话 : 简论贝克特的<等待戈多> 		Publication / Beck33
9 1995 Lu, Yongmao. Beikete xiao shuo yan jiu. (Kaifeng : Kaifeng da xue chu ban she, 1995). [Studies of Samuel Beckett’s fiction].
贝克特小说研究 		Publication / Beck23
10 1997 Shu, Xiaomei. Shi lun Beikete xi ju zuo pin zhong di shi kong jie gou. In : Wai guo wen xue yan jiu ; no 2 (1997). [The temporal and spatial structures in the works of Samuel Beckett].
试论贝克特戏剧作品中的时空结构 		Publication / Beck35
11 1997 Lu, Jiande. Zi you xu kong de xin ling : Samiaoer Beikete de xiao shuo chuang zuo. In : Xian dai zhu yi zhi hou : xie shi yu shi yan. (Beijing : Zhongguo she hui ke xue chu ban she, 1997). [Free and empty soul : a study of Samuel Beckett's novels].
自由虚空的心灵萨缪尔贝克特的小说创作 		Publication / Beck36
12 1997 Shu, Xiaomei. Shi hua dui chen huang dan : Beikete Deng dai Geduo xi ju yu yan zhu yao te zheng. In : Wai guo wen xue yan jiu ; no. 2 (1997). [Poeticization, symmetry, and absurdity : the dramatic language in Waiting for Godot von Samuel Beckett].
诗化对称荒诞 : 贝克特等待戈多戏剧语言的主要特征 		Publication / Beck37
13 1998 Hou, Weirui. Yu zhen shi yu huang dan : shi lun Saimiaoer Beikete de huang dan. In : Hangzhou da xue xue bao ; no. 2 (1998). [The absurd reality : a study of Samuel Beckett's absurd].
寓真实于荒诞 : 试论塞缪尔贝克特的荒诞小说 		Publication / Beck38
14 2002 Shu, Xiaomei. Dian ying yu yan zai Beikete ju zuo zhong di yun yong cong zui hou yi pan lu yin dai tan qi. In : Nanjing shi da xue xue bao ; no. 2 (2002). [The cinematic language in Beckett's plays : Krapp's last tape].
电影语言在贝克特剧作中的运用从最后一盘录音带谈起 		Publication / Beck39
15 2003 He, Chengzhou. Beikete : xi ju dui xiao shuo de gai xie. In : Dang dai wai guo wen xue ; no 3 (2003). [Samuel Beckett and his rewriting of novels in plays].
贝克特 : 戏剧对小说的改写 		Publication / Beck40
16 2003 Ran, Dongping. Tu po xian dai pai xi ju de yi shu jie xian : ping Samiaoer Beikete de jing zhi xi ju. In : Wai guo wen xue ping lun ; no. 2 (2003). [Beyond the art boundary of modernist drama : Samuel Beckett's theatre of silence].
突破现代派戏剧的艺术界限 : 评萨缪尔贝克特的静止戏剧 		Publication / Beck41
17 2004 He, Chengzhou. Beikete de yuan xi ju yan jiu. In : Dang dai wai guo wen xue ; no. 3 (2004). [A probe into Samuel Beckett's meta-theatre].
贝克特的元戏剧研究 		Publication / Beck42
18 2005 Wang, Yahua. A journey to the "ideal core of the onion" : self-exploration and formal experiment in Beckett's novels. (Beijing : Beijing Language and Culture University Press, 2005). Publication / Beck43
19 2006 Wang, Yahua ; Liu, Lixia. Nan yi ming mingy i yan yi yi zhi mi tuan : Saimiaoer Beikete xiao shuo nan yi ming ming zhi jie gou zhu yi chan shi. In : Wai guo wen xue ping lun ; no 3 (2006). [Impossible to name, absurdity, and the aporia of meaning : a structuralist interpretation of The unnameable by Samuel Beckett].
王雅华难以命名异延意义之谜团塞缪尔贝克特小说难以命名者之解构主义阐释 		Publication / Beck44
20 2007 Liu, Aiying. Saimiaoer Beikete : Jian zheng shen ti zhi zai. Diss. Shanghai International Studies University, 2007. [Samuel Beckett : the body matters].
塞缪尔贝克特 : 见证身体之在 		Publication / Beck34

Cited by (1)

# Year Bibliographical Data Type / Abbreviation Linked Data
1 2000- Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich Organisation / AOI
  • Cited by: Huppertz, Josefine ; Köster, Hermann. Kleine China-Beiträge. (St. Augustin : Selbstverlag, 1979). [Hermann Köster zum 75. Geburtstag].

    [Enthält : Ostasieneise von Wilhelm Schmidt 1935 von Josefine Huppertz ; Konfuzianismus von Xunzi von Hermann Köster]. (Huppe1, Published)