Zhao Benshan's sketch comedies are full of humorous elements.But the studies of the mechanisms causing humor in these Chinese contexts are relatively rare in the pragmatic domain at home.This essay,appealing to se...Zhao Benshan's sketch comedies are full of humorous elements.But the studies of the mechanisms causing humor in these Chinese contexts are relatively rare in the pragmatic domain at home.This essay,appealing to several pragmatic theories—mainly cooperative principle and polite principle,aims to exemplify and explicate the underlying systems that make up the humorous language.展开更多
Shakespeare and Ben Jonson have frequently been paired up for comparison in studies of early modern English drama.Conventional views about Shakespeare’s and Jonson’s comedies evolved and crystallized in the seventee...Shakespeare and Ben Jonson have frequently been paired up for comparison in studies of early modern English drama.Conventional views about Shakespeare’s and Jonson’s comedies evolved and crystallized in the seventeenth,eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.People believed or were led to believe that Shakespeare’s and Jonson’s comedies were in clear opposition:Shakespeare’s comedies were sweet,romantic,amiable,popular and entertaining,whereas Jonson’s were based on an abstract theory of humors,cold,satiric,pedantic,and moralizing.Only in the last century did these oppositions begin to change,but too slowly.This paper calls those binary oppositions into question.It tries to present a more truthful picture of these two playwrights and their comedies through an examination of some of their works.It argues that some of those oppositions are stereotypes and should not be taken seriously by contemporary Shakespearean and Jonsonian scholars.展开更多
While Pinter's earliest plays have been recognized in the modernist history of theatre as comedies of menace and his later plays as political comedies,this article argues that his earliest plays are equally very l...While Pinter's earliest plays have been recognized in the modernist history of theatre as comedies of menace and his later plays as political comedies,this article argues that his earliest plays are equally very liable to be interpreted as political comedies.Regardless of their absurdist dramatization of people's helpless exposure to external,unidentifiable threats,a common post-WWII characteristic feature of human experience,I claim that The Room and The Dumb Waiter(both written 1957,staged 1960),two model examples of Pinter's earliest oeuvres,do not simply follow the aesthetic of absurdist theatre to express human futility.The audience's experience of viewing the theatrical performances of both plays in terms of discursive cyclicality or character normality is subverted into one of changeability,strangeness,and contradiction.To foreground the political implications of such revolutionary theatrical experience,Pinter's plays are examined in the light of his unique use of defamiliarization,relying not on Brecht's traditional techniques of singing,dancing,image-projecting,or captioning,but on a simple,dual technique of image destruction and creation.It consists of divesting characters of their normality and portraying them instead as individuals who identify only with unusual images of place,time,body,and consciousness.Using this special technique of defamiliarization,both plays are examined to reveal Pinter's central political theme of undermining reality for purposes of mental and physical subjections.展开更多
Three short performances from three regional operas present an eccentric comic image of Chenghuang城隍(City God).This serious and formidable god is performed by the role of chou丑(clown),and the role’s physical art s...Three short performances from three regional operas present an eccentric comic image of Chenghuang城隍(City God).This serious and formidable god is performed by the role of chou丑(clown),and the role’s physical art shatters the audience’s perception of this god’s traditional image.The role’s exaggerated and awkward body also results in a performance-centered structure in which negative aspects of human nature are vividly portrayed.The eccentric representation brings laughter,but the laughter is also fully charged with Confucian concepts of goodness,righteousness,justice,and tianli天理(the way of heaven).Turning a divine image into a hilarious one is an unconventional manner and also a peculiar tactic of these performers.Through this tactic,these performers not only hide their subtle criticism of the reality and the authority to survive censorship but also disseminate successfully traditional values and folk religious beliefs.This tactic indicates the cultural function of the theater and demonstrates how traditions can remain valid and functional through a force that arises from the interaction between Confucianism,folk religious beliefs,and performance.展开更多
Catch-22,which is written by Joseph Heller,can be recognized as the "Modern Classic" of American literature,and this fiction uses a distinctive non-chronological third-person omniscient narration,describing ...Catch-22,which is written by Joseph Heller,can be recognized as the "Modern Classic" of American literature,and this fiction uses a distinctive non-chronological third-person omniscient narration,describing the stories from different figures' visual angles.The novel features tragic content with comic form,anti-hero and illogical narrative structure.Catch-22,which no one can get out of,is not a simple rule;in other words,it's really a snare and this no-win situation exists in every corner of people's daily time.展开更多
The ending(Act V) of The Merchant of Venice makes this play a great comedy because it skillfully represents the unity of the organic whole which is highly emphasized by Aristotle. As a text to be read, the ending of t...The ending(Act V) of The Merchant of Venice makes this play a great comedy because it skillfully represents the unity of the organic whole which is highly emphasized by Aristotle. As a text to be read, the ending of this play has reached organic unity concerning plot structure. As a play to be performed, the ending is an organic whole when it comes to dramatic effects.The unity of comic spirit in the ending attributes to the everlasting beauty of this play.展开更多
This essay is twofold： the first part focuses on the interpretation of the concept of Hell in Dante＇s Inferno and Italian culture as depicted in Last Judgment scenes such as Giotto＇s in the Arena Chapel of Padua; S...This essay is twofold： the first part focuses on the interpretation of the concept of Hell in Dante＇s Inferno and Italian culture as depicted in Last Judgment scenes such as Giotto＇s in the Arena Chapel of Padua; Signorelli＇s in the Orvieto Cathedral; and Michelangelo＇s in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. The second part deals with the drawing illustrations for the text of Dante＇s Divine Comedy composed by the Florentine painters Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Here the emphasis is on Dante＇s Inferno, which comments upon Neoplatonic personalities, Florentine politics, and current popular art. Comparisons with some of Botticelli＇s, Stradano＇s, and Zuccaro＇s drawing illustrations indicate the assimilation of classical artistic concepts such as Horace＇s ut pictura poesis [as is painting so is poetry] as well as Plato＇sfurorpoeticus [poetical inspiration] promoted in the writings of Marsilio Ficino, a Renaissance Neoplatonic philosopher.展开更多
This paper sets out to analyze the menace of Harold Pinter’s play,The Dumb Waiter,from the following aspects,the ar rangement of the plot,the language,and the portrayal of characters.Further,through the contrast betw...This paper sets out to analyze the menace of Harold Pinter’s play,The Dumb Waiter,from the following aspects,the ar rangement of the plot,the language,and the portrayal of characters.Further,through the contrast between the closed room and outside intrusion,between the language of violence and the language of silence,between Ben and Gus’s shared threat and Ben’s menace to Gus,it’s expected to reveal the omnipresent threat to readers through and through.展开更多
Northrop Frye' s four narrative forms:romance,tragedy,irony,and comedy can help explain the problematic structure of Margaret Atwood' s novel Cat' s Eye,in which the narrative,as well as certain other lite...Northrop Frye' s four narrative forms:romance,tragedy,irony,and comedy can help explain the problematic structure of Margaret Atwood' s novel Cat' s Eye,in which the narrative,as well as certain other literary features,indicates that it is essentially a come dy - a story of how a hero forms a desirable new society in the face of strong opposition.But this comedy is also ironic.展开更多
文摘Zhao Benshan's sketch comedies are full of humorous elements.But the studies of the mechanisms causing humor in these Chinese contexts are relatively rare in the pragmatic domain at home.This essay,appealing to several pragmatic theories—mainly cooperative principle and polite principle,aims to exemplify and explicate the underlying systems that make up the humorous language.
文摘Shakespeare and Ben Jonson have frequently been paired up for comparison in studies of early modern English drama.Conventional views about Shakespeare’s and Jonson’s comedies evolved and crystallized in the seventeenth,eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.People believed or were led to believe that Shakespeare’s and Jonson’s comedies were in clear opposition:Shakespeare’s comedies were sweet,romantic,amiable,popular and entertaining,whereas Jonson’s were based on an abstract theory of humors,cold,satiric,pedantic,and moralizing.Only in the last century did these oppositions begin to change,but too slowly.This paper calls those binary oppositions into question.It tries to present a more truthful picture of these two playwrights and their comedies through an examination of some of their works.It argues that some of those oppositions are stereotypes and should not be taken seriously by contemporary Shakespearean and Jonsonian scholars.
基金Open access funding provided by The Science,Technology&Innovation Funding Authority(STDF)in cooperation with The Egyptian Knowledge Bank(EKB)Open access funding provided by Al Azhar University under a Transformative Agreement plus fully OA agreement.
文摘While Pinter's earliest plays have been recognized in the modernist history of theatre as comedies of menace and his later plays as political comedies,this article argues that his earliest plays are equally very liable to be interpreted as political comedies.Regardless of their absurdist dramatization of people's helpless exposure to external,unidentifiable threats,a common post-WWII characteristic feature of human experience,I claim that The Room and The Dumb Waiter(both written 1957,staged 1960),two model examples of Pinter's earliest oeuvres,do not simply follow the aesthetic of absurdist theatre to express human futility.The audience's experience of viewing the theatrical performances of both plays in terms of discursive cyclicality or character normality is subverted into one of changeability,strangeness,and contradiction.To foreground the political implications of such revolutionary theatrical experience,Pinter's plays are examined in the light of his unique use of defamiliarization,relying not on Brecht's traditional techniques of singing,dancing,image-projecting,or captioning,but on a simple,dual technique of image destruction and creation.It consists of divesting characters of their normality and portraying them instead as individuals who identify only with unusual images of place,time,body,and consciousness.Using this special technique of defamiliarization,both plays are examined to reveal Pinter's central political theme of undermining reality for purposes of mental and physical subjections.
文摘Three short performances from three regional operas present an eccentric comic image of Chenghuang城隍(City God).This serious and formidable god is performed by the role of chou丑(clown),and the role’s physical art shatters the audience’s perception of this god’s traditional image.The role’s exaggerated and awkward body also results in a performance-centered structure in which negative aspects of human nature are vividly portrayed.The eccentric representation brings laughter,but the laughter is also fully charged with Confucian concepts of goodness,righteousness,justice,and tianli天理(the way of heaven).Turning a divine image into a hilarious one is an unconventional manner and also a peculiar tactic of these performers.Through this tactic,these performers not only hide their subtle criticism of the reality and the authority to survive censorship but also disseminate successfully traditional values and folk religious beliefs.This tactic indicates the cultural function of the theater and demonstrates how traditions can remain valid and functional through a force that arises from the interaction between Confucianism,folk religious beliefs,and performance.
文摘Catch-22,which is written by Joseph Heller,can be recognized as the "Modern Classic" of American literature,and this fiction uses a distinctive non-chronological third-person omniscient narration,describing the stories from different figures' visual angles.The novel features tragic content with comic form,anti-hero and illogical narrative structure.Catch-22,which no one can get out of,is not a simple rule;in other words,it's really a snare and this no-win situation exists in every corner of people's daily time.
文摘The ending(Act V) of The Merchant of Venice makes this play a great comedy because it skillfully represents the unity of the organic whole which is highly emphasized by Aristotle. As a text to be read, the ending of this play has reached organic unity concerning plot structure. As a play to be performed, the ending is an organic whole when it comes to dramatic effects.The unity of comic spirit in the ending attributes to the everlasting beauty of this play.
文摘This essay is twofold： the first part focuses on the interpretation of the concept of Hell in Dante＇s Inferno and Italian culture as depicted in Last Judgment scenes such as Giotto＇s in the Arena Chapel of Padua; Signorelli＇s in the Orvieto Cathedral; and Michelangelo＇s in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. The second part deals with the drawing illustrations for the text of Dante＇s Divine Comedy composed by the Florentine painters Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Here the emphasis is on Dante＇s Inferno, which comments upon Neoplatonic personalities, Florentine politics, and current popular art. Comparisons with some of Botticelli＇s, Stradano＇s, and Zuccaro＇s drawing illustrations indicate the assimilation of classical artistic concepts such as Horace＇s ut pictura poesis [as is painting so is poetry] as well as Plato＇sfurorpoeticus [poetical inspiration] promoted in the writings of Marsilio Ficino, a Renaissance Neoplatonic philosopher.
文摘This paper sets out to analyze the menace of Harold Pinter’s play,The Dumb Waiter,from the following aspects,the ar rangement of the plot,the language,and the portrayal of characters.Further,through the contrast between the closed room and outside intrusion,between the language of violence and the language of silence,between Ben and Gus’s shared threat and Ben’s menace to Gus,it’s expected to reveal the omnipresent threat to readers through and through.
文摘Northrop Frye' s four narrative forms:romance,tragedy,irony,and comedy can help explain the problematic structure of Margaret Atwood' s novel Cat' s Eye,in which the narrative,as well as certain other literary features,indicates that it is essentially a come dy - a story of how a hero forms a desirable new society in the face of strong opposition.But this comedy is also ironic.
