英文摘要 |
Taiwanese Beiguan Theatre follows the principles of oral tradition. Even though we transcribe the dialogues and the music into texts, these manuscripts conserve some parts noted as “sentences not finished” or “improvisations by clown.” It is a dramatic genre between those with totally settled scripts and those acted out only from a basic framework. The methodology of this essay is inspired by two domains. One is the morphological analysis of fairy tales by Vladimir Propp. The other is from oral tradition studies: the concepts such as “formula” and “theme” which are propounded by Parry-Lord in their studies on the mechanisms of the creation of oral literature. The Hunbianxi “Play about a Man Betraying his Family” is our first choice because it is one of the most characteristic types of Chinese dramatic texts. From the two different versions of Sanguan Tan belonging to Hunbianxi in Beiguan Theatre, we collect the formulae and themes, and then analyze the narrative structure and functions of dramatis personae. From the study, the researcher finds that the “function” defined by Propp is close to the “action” in drama. In fairy tales, who completes the function is not important. However, it becomes the major issue in drama: focus on human relations. Fairy tales and Hunbianxi both have the same features: limited numbers of functions (actions) and identically arranged functions (actions). In Beiguan theatre, “formulaic” components are for individuals, but “themes” are employed in specific scenes and carried out by plural roles. They are widely used in the theatre, so the public is impressed by its repetitive style. |