SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Overview

Internal Supervisors

• Rossella Ferrari

Biography

 I am an Italian research student. Since my childhood, I have had three main passions: books, foreign languages, and creative writing. These are largely based on my precocious attraction for the written word, which prompted me to learn to read and write by myself at a tender age, as well as on my desire to become acquainted with things beyond my native culture. Following my interest in the languages and cultures of East Asia, I studied Chinese language and literature at Rome University. Before graduating I had the opportunity to spend one semester at Beijing Waiguoyu Daxue in Beijing, thanks to a scholarship granted by my faculty. It was precisely whilst doing fieldwork for my BA thesis that I developed a strong enthusiasm for academic research. This prompted me to pursue an MA Chinese Studies at SOAS, where I could combine my newly-acquired language skills with my lifelong interest in cultural studies.

PhD Research

Since the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2000, Chinese-born exiled writer Gao Xingjian has never ceased to attract scholarly attention worldwide. Given the large amount of critical sources dealing with his literary and dramatic production, it would seem that such topic has been literally over-researched and that it would be almost impossible to say something original about it at this stage. Nevertheless, as I observed while studying Gao’s 1990 play Taowang (Escape) in comparison with Jean Paul Sartre’s famous one-act pièce Huis Clos (No Exit, 1944), Gao’s usage of the tragic mode as a means of dramatizing what he defines as “the predicament of modern man” (xiandai ren de kunjing) has remained almost unexplored. Therefore, since Taowang was conceived by its author as a modern tragedy (at least in formal terms), it is interesting to assess the extent to which such a play can be reasonably deemed as a tragedy, or at least, whether it can express a kind of tragic sensibility. This inquiry can be extended to the entirety of Gao’s oeuvre, particularly his post-exile plays, owing to the presence of a common denominator, namely a pervasive, quasi-obsessive concern for existential themes.

As evidenced by a preliminary review of existing critical literature on the subject, the possibility of reading Gao’s works as portraying the tragedy of modern humanity has hitherto only been hinted at (Zhao 2000), although not fully investigated. More specifically, whereas a few scholars have mentioned these works as potentially reflective of a tragic worldview (Łabedzka; Yeung, 2008), no attempt has yet been made to reframe the theatre of Gao Xingjian through the lens of the tragic. As a result, a full investigation of the tragic overtones of Gao’s plays is definitely lacking.

My goal is therefore to tackle Gao’s post-exile plays as a tragic discourse. I aim to transcend prevalent views in current scholarship, in which Gao’s linkages with the French Theatre of the Absurd have been widely discussed, yet without going deep into the linkages between the absurd and the tragic in modern and contemporary drama (Tam 2001; Tay 2001; Ma 2001; Łabedzka 2008).

My PhD thesis will consist of three main parts. In the first I intend to analyze the terms of the theoretical debate on the resurgence of the tragic in twentieth-century European drama, as opposed to claims about the death of tragedy in the modern world (Steiner 1964). In the second part I will deal with the theatre of Gao Xingjian, with particular attention to his pre-exile production. More specifically, I aim to determine the main sources of Gao’s tragic sensibility as applied to drama, as well as the impact of Gao’s Chinese cultural background and pre-exile life experience (e.g. the trauma of the Cultural Revolution) on his understanding and dramatic usage of the tragic mode. In addition, I will explore the ways in which the concept of the tragic is expressed and dealt with in Chinese culture. The third part will provide an analysis of Gao’s post-exile plays by testing their tragic potential against other examples of “tragic” drama (i.e. Theatre of the Absurd, Theatre of Situation, Chinese beiju and others).

Concerning the expectations of this study, I hope to be able to work out a specific theory of the tragic with respect to Gao’s dramatic repertoire, as well as to provide a conceptual definition of what I would define as “New Tragic Theatre of Situation à la Gao”.

PhD Publications

Fusini, Letizia. L’enfer c’est moi-même: an Existentialist Reading of Gao Xingjian’s Escape. Saarbrucken, Germany: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2012.