Abstract
Following the chapters on jingju and absurdist aesthetics, this chapter takes up Gao’s sense of aesthetics, one that draws on both traditions and arguably goes beyond them. Gao has a concept of the tripartitioned self, or the actor in three parts. There is a neutral actor, the actor, performing-character, and the character. The chapter recognizes similarities to Brecht’s performance theories, but goes on to demonstrate how Gao’s dramaturgy activates his tripartitioned actor in different ways. The chapter introduces a semiotic lens to demonstrate this and takes up the importance of language in Gao’s work and how it disrupts identity.
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Notes
Gao Xingjian and Denis Bourgeois, Au plus près du réel (Paris: Editions de l’aube, 1997), 12.
Gilbert Fong, “Gao Xingjian and the Idea of Theatre,” in Soul of Chaos: Critical Perspectives on Gao Xingjian, edited by Tam Kwok-kan (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2001), 147–156.
Tracy C. Davis and Thomas Postlewait, “Theatricality: An Introduction,” in Theatricality (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 6.
Mabel Lee, “Pronouns as Protagonists: On Gao Xingjian’s Theory of Narration,” in Soul of Chaos: Critical Perspectives on Gao Xingjian (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2001), 235–256.
Sy Ren Quah, “Space and Suppositionality in Gao Xingjian’s Theatre,” in Soul of Chaos: Critical Perspectives on Gao Xingjian (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2001), 157–200.
Bertolt Brecht, “A Short Description of a New Technique of Acting,” Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic, translated by John Willett (London: Methuen, 1964), 139.
Maxwell K. Hearn, “Introduction,” Chinese Art: Modern Expression, Maxwell K. Hearn and Judith G. Smith, editors (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001), 19.
Eugene Wang, “Sketch Conceptualism as Modernist Contigency,” Chinese Art: Modern Expressions, edited by Maxwell K. Hearn and Judith G. Smith (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001), 111.
Gao Xingjian, Pour une autre esthétique (Paris: Editions Cercle d’art Paris, 2000), 12.
Gao’s description and employment of the individual closely echoes the work of Homi Bhabha and in particular his writings on cultural hybridity and postcolonial identity. See Bhabha, Homi K. Bhanha, The Location of Culture (New York: Routledge Classics, 2004).
Julia Kristeva, Language: The Unknown, translated by Anne M. Menke (New York: Columbia, 1989), 4.
Julia Kristeva, “Revolution in Poetic Language,” The Kristeva Reader, edited by Toril Moi (New York: Columbia, 1986), 92.
Gao Xingjian, Le Témoinage de la littérature (Paris: Seuil, 2004), 87.
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© 2014 Todd J. Coulter
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Coulter, T.J. (2014). The Actor in Thirds: Gao’s Theory of Performance. In: Transcultural Aesthetics in the Plays of Gao Xingjian. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137440747_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137440747_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-49510-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-44074-7
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