Snow in August=八月雪; 現代禪劇; 功能語法; 銜接照應; Zen=禪; 高行健; cohesion; dialogue and action; Hallidayan discourse analysis
摘要
An ideal theatre about a Zen story by Gao Xingjian is his Snow in August. A discourse analysis of this play tells a genre of the drama per se. The analytical steps are as follows: first, to describe the Functional Grammar of the semiotic system; second, to analyze the cohesion of conversations and actions; and lastly, to observe the stylistics of the whole work and of the author. The analysis of the work Snow in August focuses on the text and then discusses such supplementary materials as actors, music and the production concepts, so as to create a clear field of observations. We can thus gradually establish a bridge between Gao and the Eastern and Western cultures. Gao Xingjian (AD. 1940~), winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature, has written many plays with a Zen atmosphere during the past 10 years. Huineng (AD. 638-713), central character of his latest play Snow in August (1997 in Paris) , founded Zen. In December 2002, Snow in August was performed for the first time in Taipei; it was then performed around the world. It has become Gao’s ideal theatre. He has said, “My aim is to create a new and contemporary musical theatre based on the foundations of Eastern traditional drama, an omnipotent theatre of singing, movement, dialogue, and the martial arts.” Because the dialogues and actions are necessary parts of a play, we can hear and watch the whole story by imagination through the description of the script, so a discourse analysis is essential for the text and the drama. This paper will use discourse analysis methods to investigate first the denotation and then the connotation of this special work.
