A History of Chinese and Foreign Drama (Third Edition)
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Summary
The author treats each culture's art as an integral part of world art, giving particular attention to ancient Greece, ancient India, and ancient China while also providing a systematic and comprehensive account of European and American dramatic movements. Combining broad overview with close attention to representative works, and balancing detail with concision, the book is well suited both as a reference text for students in the humanities and as an introductory guide for theater lovers.
Editor's review
While retaining the clear structure and fluent prose of earlier editions, the third edition incorporates recent scholarly research, with some chapters expanded and revised to make the discussion more precise. Particularly valuable is the book's balance between scholarly rigor and readability. It can serve as an introductory guide for students of drama, literature, and the arts, helping them build a broad historical perspective; it also offers general theater lovers a detailed cognitive map, enabling them to understand not only what happens in a given play but why, and to derive deeper aesthetic pleasure.
Professor Liu Yanjun's writing has a gift for turning cold historical materials into warm narrative. The theater history she presents is a history of people, of emotions, and of clashes of ideas. Reading this book is like walking with a learned and genial guide through the corridors of Chinese and foreign drama, from ancient Greek Dionysian rituals to postmodern theater, understanding the spiritual drives and cultural codes behind each dramatic form. This is a work that can genuinely cultivate readers' eye for drama and their historical thinking.
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Undergraduate and graduate students in drama, film and television, literature, art history, and related fields, for use as a core textbook or supplementary reading.
- General readers and literary and arts enthusiasts with a strong interest in Chinese and foreign dramatic culture who wish to gain a systematic understanding of its development and representative works.
- Professionals in playwriting, directing, theater criticism, and cultural media who wish to strengthen their theoretical foundation and gain historical points of reference.
- Secondary school and higher-level teachers of literature and history seeking reference resources to integrate theater history into teaching and enhance students' humanistic literacy.
Not a good fit for
- Readers seeking only light, entertaining story reading, or those who want quick plot summaries of dramatic works.
- Senior scholars requiring extremely in-depth, narrowly focused micro-studies of the drama of a single country or period (this book is positioned as a general history).
Reading tips
- Reading in chapter order is recommended in order to build a clear chronological framework and understand the succession and evolution of dramatic movements.
- While reading, it is helpful to seek out performance recordings or scripts of the classic plays mentioned in the book for comparative reading.
- The discussion questions at the end of each chapter are worth taking seriously; they help review key points and encourage connections between historical knowledge and contemporary theater phenomena.
About the publisher
Guangxi Normal University Press is a publisher known for literature, foreign literature and history titles. Its 1,175 books in the database show a solid accumulation in classics and prose collections, including foreign literary works such as Les Fleurs du mal: Annotated Poems of Baudelaire, Snow Country, Dubliners and The Wild Palms, as well as modern prose compilations like The Complete Prose of Zhou Zuoren. History and philosophy also hold a notable share, with titles such as Running Dogs: Clerks and Runners in Qing County Yamen and The History and Thought of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom reflecting attention to Qing local administration and modern history. In art literature there is the 16-volume Ten Bamboo Studio Painting and Calligraphy Manual. Its author resources include foreign writers Charles Baudelaire and Yasunari Kawabata, translators and annotators Liu Nanqi and Zou Bo, and scholars such as Zhong Shuhe, Bradly W. Reed and You Chenjun. As public information is limited, this characterization is based only on the books in the database, which together present a profile balancing Chinese and foreign literary classics with academic works in the humanities and social sciences.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 导言：人类戏剧的播衍
- 第一章 古希腊罗马戏剧
- 第一节 古希腊悲剧和喜剧
- 第二节 古希腊三大悲剧家
- 第三节 古希腊喜剧家
- 第四节 古罗马悲剧与喜剧
- 第五节 古代剧场
- 第六节 中世纪宗教戏剧
- 第二章 印度梵剧
- 第一节 历史演变
- 第二节 舞台特征
- 第三节 马鸣、跋娑、首陀罗迦
- 第四节 迦梨陀娑
- 第五节 戒日王、薄婆萨提
- 第六节 梵剧剧场
- 第三章 中国戏曲
- 第一节 历史演变
- 第二节 舞台特征
- 第三节 关汉卿
- 第四节 《西厢记》与《琵琶记》
- 第五节 汤显祖
- 第六节 “南洪北孔”
- 第七节 戏曲剧场
- 第四章 日本能、狂言与歌舞伎
- 第一节 历史演变
- 第二节 舞台特征
- 第三节 世阿弥
- 第四节 狂言剧作
- 第五节 近松门左卫门
- 第六节 近松之后的剧作家
- 第七节 日本古典剧场
- 第五章 文艺复兴到19世纪的欧洲戏剧发展
- 第一节 文艺复兴与戏剧复兴
- 第二节 莎士比亚
- 第三节 古典主义戏剧与莫里哀
- 第四节 启蒙运动时期的戏剧
- 第五节 浪漫主义戏剧
- 第六节 现实主义戏剧
- 第七节 易卜生
- 第八节 萧伯纳、契诃夫
- 第九节 舞剧
- 第十节 歌剧
- 第十一节 剧场的发展
- 第六章 19世纪末到20世纪的欧美戏剧思潮
- 第一节 现代与后现代戏剧的反叛
- 第二节 象征主义戏剧
- 第三节 表现主义戏剧
- 第四节 未来主义与超现实主义戏剧
- 第五节 各种导演观念与体系
- 第六节 布莱希特叙事剧
- 第七节 存在主义戏剧
- 第八节 荒诞派戏剧
- 第九节 新写实戏剧
- 第十节 形形色色的实验戏剧
- 第十一节 音乐剧
- 第七章 西潮东渐与中国戏剧变革
- 第一节 西潮东渐与东方戏剧变革
- 第二节 中国戏曲革新与话剧诞生
- 第三节 曹禺
- 第四节 从戏曲改革到“革命样板戏”
- 第五节 新时期的戏剧变革
- 第八章 世界各地戏剧的发展状貌
- 一、欧洲戏剧
- 二、东亚和南亚戏剧
- 三、中西亚与北非戏剧
- 四、拉丁美洲戏剧
- 五、北美洲戏剧
- 六、大洋洲、黑非洲戏剧
- 七、国际戏剧协会
- 结语：人类戏剧的未来
- 参考文献
FAQ
How is this book different from a standard standalone History of Chinese Drama or History of Western Drama?
What are the main updates in the third edition compared with the previous edition?
Can readers without a professional background in drama understand it?
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About the author
Liu Yanjun is an author whose works span several fields. Public information about her is limited, and three of her books are included in the library collection. Among them, A History of Chinese and Foreign Drama (3rd Edition) belongs to the field of film and drama studies and traces the historical development of drama in China and abroad; Tencent Management Methods is a management title that discusses corporate operation and management; and Java Object-Oriented Thinking and Programming is a programming and design book that explains object-oriented concepts and Java programming. These three works correspond to the common categories of film and television, management, and programming design, covering a wide range of subjects and reflecting the author's interest in and reach across different areas of knowledge. As no reliable records of her dates of birth and death, nationality, education, or professional career are available, her personal background cannot be confirmed, and readers should base their understanding primarily on the works themselves and the fields to which they belong.
Liao Ben is an author about whom limited public information is currently available. One work is included in the database, A History of Chinese and Foreign Drama (3rd Edition), commonly classified under film and television. The title suggests that his writing addresses the development of Chinese and foreign drama and adopts a comparative perspective between the two, placing the subject at the intersection of theater history and film and television culture. As a textbook-style work, it follows a historical thread and traces the evolution of dramatic forms across different periods and regions, with clear and systematic narration that helps readers build an overall understanding. Because details such as the author's nationality, dates of birth and death, and English name are unavailable, no further biographical background can be given. It can only be said at the level of the work that this kind of theater history writing generally requires long-term accumulation and cross-cultural reading, offers reference value for teaching and research, and is also suitable as an introductory text for general readers interested in drama, film, and television.
