•  
  •  
 

Abstract

By analyzing the semantics and functions of the storytelling scripts (huaben) of the Song and the Yuan dynasties within the context of communication in the storytelling field, this essay finds out that the storyteller could skillfully assume five performative and narrative identities, namely, the host, the narrator, the character, the commentator and the spokesman of the audience, so as to control the progression, tell the story, enact the character, influence audiences' value orientations and aesthetic feedback. The storyteller switched between different performative and narrative identities by going in and out of the story, communicating and interacting with the main subjects of the storytelling field, hence establishing seven major “communication contexts” and their texts, between “the host and the audience”, “the narrator and the audience”, “characters in the story”, “characters and audiences”, “characters and the narrator”, “the commentator and the audience” and “the spokesperson of the audience and the narrator”. The unique performative and narrative form of the storytelling scripts also encouraged storytellers to skillfully integrate the various styles of the previous generations of storytelling, thus constructing the stylistic form of the storytelling scripts of the Song and the Yuan dynasties, which was composed of “pianshou”, “ruhua”, “touhui”, “zhenghua” and “pianwei”.

Keywords

context of communication in the storytelling field, the storyteller, performative and narrative form, textual form

First Page

153

Last Page

164

Download

Share

COinS