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Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until August 04, 2029

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The Theatrical Turn: Theater, Genre Repertoire, and Literati’s Quotidian Life in the Wanli Period, 1570s-1620s

Wang, Erxin
http://orcid.org/0009-0006-9831-4754
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1721255378346671

Abstract Details

2024, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, East Asian Languages and Literatures.
This dissertation aims to shed light on why literati and scholar-officials developed an increased interest in theater from the mid-sixteenth century onward (aka, the late Ming dynasty). A substantial body of scholarship has examined late Ming literati’s embrace of playwriting, but further research is needed to delineate the cultural mechanics of this “theatrical turn.” In this dissertation, I will approach this process through the lens of cross-genre interactions. Specifically, I will explore in what ways theater came to inform other cultural practices in everyday literati life, and vice versa. Examining the life writings of three late Ming literati, who were active during the Wanli reign (r. 1573-1620), this study shows how they employed different rhetoric, performative, and perceptual aspects of theatricality to innovate other existing literary forms. While being part of a highly interactive community of theater aficionados, they each chose a distinct literary genre other than theater as their primary medium to recall and record their theatrical experiences. The core analysis of this study centers around the multidirectional generic interplay between theater and the three literary genres they chose to write in respectively: poetry, diary, and preface. The chapters focus on how different aspects of theatricality informed traditional genres through the lenses of the construction of multiple points-of-view, the perception of time, and the presentation of bodily experience. At the same time, I examine these heterogenous genres as different forms of “life writing” to foreground how literati writers’ were remarkably attentive to everyday life. My analysis reveals theater’s impact on literati’s literary responses to their everyday lives by way of innovative generic interplay. I do not treat “genre” as a static category, but as a malleable expressive vehicle that was transformed in the very process of being adapted to the new subject of theater. Moreover, adopting “genre repertoire” as an analytical lens, I focus on the individual subjectivity and creativity of these elite men to fashion inventive modes of remembrance through distinct intermediations of different genres. Although the diverse writing practices examined in my study were linked to the textual form on the page, their inter-generic entanglement with theater and each other enlarged the boundaries of literary media. As my study demonstrates, it was late Ming literati’s experience with theatricality that provided a source of inspiration for their respective literary innovations. Last but not least, this dissertation also enters into dialogue with a wide range of studies that focus on the convergence between theater and religion. Despite their shared spiritual pursuits, the three literati, all lay Buddhists, nevertheless adopted dissimilar strategies to deal with the religion-theater dyad. My close attention to genre in this study also attests to the flexibility of literary writing as an intermediary agent to address potential tensions between religion, theater, and everyday life.
Patricia Sieber (Advisor)
Meow Hui Goh (Committee Member)
Ying Zhang (Committee Member)
S. E. Kile (Committee Member)
258 p.
Asian Literature; Asian Studies; Theater; Theater Studies
late Ming; theater; genre repertoire; literati; quotidian life

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Wang, E. (2024). The Theatrical Turn: Theater, Genre Repertoire, and Literati’s Quotidian Life in the Wanli Period, 1570s-1620s [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1721255378346671

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wang, Erxin. The Theatrical Turn: Theater, Genre Repertoire, and Literati’s Quotidian Life in the Wanli Period, 1570s-1620s. 2024. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1721255378346671.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wang, Erxin. "The Theatrical Turn: Theater, Genre Repertoire, and Literati’s Quotidian Life in the Wanli Period, 1570s-1620s." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2024. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1721255378346671

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1721255378346671
© 2024, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12