On the afternoon of May 30, Associate Prof. Michael Y. Bennett from English Department of the University of Wisconsin--Whitewater delivered a lecture on “The World of the Play” to students and teachers of School of International Studies (SIS). The lecture was hosted by Prof. Gao Fen from the SIS. Starting from Shakespeare's “Mirror” metaphor for drama, Associate Prof. Michael Y. Bennett gave a systematic and philosophic illustration of drama, dramatic texts, playwrights, performances and audience.
Shakespeare once compared drama to “a mirror reflecting reality”, which has long influenced people’s view on drama. However, Michael Y. Bennett said it neglected the virtuality of drama, so it failed to express its essence. He thought of drama as “a possible world” beyond the real one, which is based on yet different from the real world. The “possible world” is endless, and a drama is the real description of a certain “possible world”.
In line with this idea, Michael Y. Bennett regarded dramatic texts and performance as “Remaking Products”. “Remaking” is the second-time creation based on existing objects, which is neither fully new nor old. Dramatic texts are re-creations of the real world, originated from existing reality and undergoing imaginative reconstruction. Dramatic performance is the re-creation of dramatic texts. Dramatic texts delimit performance, while how to give a concrete expression of drama within texts is the unique freedom of performance. In other words, the precision of dramatic texts and performance is different. Dramatic texts are a “possible world within a certain range”, while dramatic performance is a specific “certain possible world” within this range. Therefore, dramatic performance itself has infinite possibilities within the range, an independent and special art form rather than an equivalent to dramatic texts.
Meanwhile, playwrights and audience are considered as “re-creators”. Playwrights create new dramas through taking materials from reality, while the audience keep encountering “beliefs” and incorporating new information into their own ideas or forming new ideas while they are watching. The audience’s views on the characters of the drama vary with the performance. They get a more extensive and deeper exploration of the characters and realized re-creation of drama in their own thoughts.
Michael Y. Bennett explored the most essential issues of drama with a philosophical, detailed and comprehensive approach, presenting a new path for drama. After the lecture, students and teachers had a heated discussion on drama with him and benefited a lot.
Institute of Foreign Literature, Zhejiang University
May 31, 2018
Translated by Shang Xiaoyi, Liu Liu
Edited by Xu Xueying
