Abstract
Central to Jean-Pierre Sarrazac's dramatic thought is "rhapsodie", a concept with united heterogeneities. The original meaning of this word is "stitching," and Sarrazac uses it to define modern and contemporary theatre, aiming to highlight the characteristics of comprehensiveness, flexibility, and heterogeneous unity. He takes modern and contemporary theatre as a continuation of and an exploration into contemporary theatre after the so-called "theatre crisis" at the end of the 19th century, and maintains that as theatricality is intertwined with the elements of "epic" and "lyric," once excluded from Aristotelian theatrical theory, traditional theatre has been developing toward an open artform. The concept of rhapsodie is a concise summary of the characteristics of modern and contemporary theatre, and its re-interpretation of "epic" and "lyric" hassignificant influence on contemporary Western theatrical theory. However, the contradiction can be seen in this concept. In its contradiction with the Szondian concept of "epic" is its inescapable reliance on it.
First Page
46
Last Page
56
Recommended Citation
Zhao, Yinghui. 2020. "Toward "Rhapsodie": On Jean-Pierre Sarrazac's Modern and Contemporary Dramatic Poetics." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 40, (2): pp.46-56. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol40/iss2/19
