Similarities and differences between Expressionist drama and Symbolist drama:
1. Similarities: Expressionist drama and Symbolist drama are both modern Western drama genres, each with its own style and expression. force.
2. Differences: The stage scheduling vocabulary of expressionist drama and symbolist drama performances have different styles, different expressiveness, and different aesthetic meanings. Symbolist drama denies reality and describes reality objectively, emphasizing the expression of intuition and fantasy, and pursuing the so-called "highest reality" in the heart. Expressionist drama is good at using changes in lighting to create various bizarre dream effects, and likes to use various distortions and abstract stage art methods to create strong stage effects that shock the audience's soul.
1. Symbolist drama (symbolic theatre)
Symbolist drama is one of the modern Western drama genres. As a genre, it first arose in poetry. The French poet Baudelaire (1821-1867) was a pioneer of symbolist poetry.
Moreas published a "Literary Manifesto" in "Le Figaro" in 1886, calling this group of poets "Symbolists". Later, this was generally used as a sign of the birth of symbolism. Soon, this genre expanded from poetry to drama, and became a drama genre that spread to several European countries. The Belgian poet M. Maeterlinck went to Paris to participate in the Symbolist movement in 1886, and published the play "Princess Maranna" in 1889. He is recognized as the first Symbolist playwright.
The main playwrights and works of this genre include: Maeterlinck's "The Uninvited Guest" (1890), "The Blue Bird" (1908), Irish playwright J.M. Synge's "The Man Who Goes to the Sea" ( 1903), German playwright G. Hauptmann's "The Sinking Bell" (1896), Russian playwright Л.N. Andreev's "Human Life" (1906), etc.
Symbolism believes that there is a certain "correspondence" relationship between all things in the universe and the human spirit, and advocates expressing all things in the universe as symbols of various human spiritual or social concepts. Symbolist drama also basically embodies this spirit. They deny reality, describe reality objectively, emphasize the expression of intuition and fantasy, and pursue the so-called inner "highest reality."
In this school of drama, sometimes abstract concepts and tangible and intangible things are transformed into characteristic symbolic images through strange imagination, such as the various "Blue Bird" "Happiness", "joy", "fire", "light", "the fragrance of the night", "sleep", "cold", etc.; sometimes various symbolic techniques are used to express elusive and mysterious forces, such as "The Intruder" "The sound is used to symbolize the intrusion of the "god of death", the sound of the waves of the sea shrouding the fate of mankind in "The Man on Horseback", etc. Therefore, although their ideological tendencies are different, most of them have a strong mystical color and irrational tendency.
It is generally believed that the above-mentioned characteristics of symbolist drama are due to the playwrights of this school being deeply disgusted and desperate for various pathological phenomena in capitalist society, so they turned their writing from the realistic "this world" to "this world". "The other side of the world", and believes that this "other side of the world" can only be perceived with the playwright's intuition and imagination, but cannot be understood with reason. Therefore, most of the scripts of this school have an irrational tendency.
Another characteristic of symbolist drama is that it often uses symbols, hints, metaphors and other expression techniques that are different from the realistic techniques of naturalism and realism. This kind of expression technique was later widely borrowed by expressionist drama, surrealist drama, and absurdist drama, and was even absorbed by later realist drama, thereby enriching its own expressive power.
In the 1920s, some Chinese dramatists were also influenced by symbolist drama. For example, some of Tian Han's early plays showed the characteristics of symbolism.
2. Expressionist drama (expressionist drama)
Expressionist drama is one of the modern Western drama schools. It appeared in Germany and Sweden at the end of the 19th century, and then spread to other European countries and the United States. It flourished from the beginning of the 20th century to around the 1920s.
Expressionist drama is a new drama genre created by a group of left-wing bourgeois intellectuals who are deeply dissatisfied with the reality of capitalism and want to express this emotion spiritually. They were influenced by Bergson's intuitionism and Freud's psychoanalytic psychology. This group of playwrights is dissatisfied with the depiction of external things. They demand to break through the appearance of things to reveal their inner essence. They demand to break through the imitation of people's words and deeds and express their "deeply hidden souls". They demand to abandon people's individuality and reveal their inner essence. The "eternal quality" that expresses its originality.
In Expressionist plays, the most eye-catching thing is the exploration of the subconscious of various characters and "dramatizing" it. In order to achieve this goal, playwrights of this school borrowed various symbolic techniques from Symbolist drama, and often made extensive use of subjective expression methods such as inner monologues, illusions, and dream embodiments.
In stage performances, Expressionist drama is good at using changes in lighting to create various bizarre dream effects, and likes to use various distortions and abstract stage art methods to create a stage that strongly shocks the audience's soul. Effect.
Some Chinese playwrights in the 1920s were also influenced by Expressionism. Guo Moruo once praised German expressionist drama and created some plays with expressionist tendencies.
The main playwrights and representative works of expressionist drama include Swedish J.A. Strindberg (1849-1912) and his "To Damascus" (1898) and "Ghost Sonata" (1907); German G. "From Morning to Midnight" (1916) by Kaiser (1878～1945); "The Crowd and Man" (1921) by E. Toler (1893～1939); K. Capek of Czechoslovakia (1890～1938) "Universal Robot" (1920); "The Hairy Ape" (1921), "Emperor Jones" (1920) by American E. O'Neill (1888~1953), etc. In addition, the early plays of German B. Brecht (1898～1956), F. Wolf (1888～1953) and others were also deeply influenced by Expressionist drama.
Expressionist drama had a great influence on subsequent Surrealist drama, especially its irrational tendency, which was later taken to the extreme by Surrealist drama. Expressionist theater, as a genre, has declined. However, its in-depth exploration of the human soul and the various subjective expression methods used to express the human soul have been absorbed and used for reference by contemporary dramatists, promoting the development of contemporary realist drama.