{"product_id":"city-of-the-dead-and-song-of-the-night-9789629966508","title":"City of the Dead and Song of the Night","description":"\u003cp\u003ePresented in English for the first time in this book are two plays by Gao Xingjian originally written in Chinese: \u003ci\u003eCity of the Dead\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSong of the Night\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003ci\u003eCity of the Dead\u003c\/i\u003e is the first of Gao Xingjian's plays to focus fully on the male-female relationship. In this work, he transforms a wellknown ancient morality tale, \"Zhuangzi Tests His Wife\", which had been used to caution women against being unfaithful to their husbands, into a modern play that is in keeping with his own sympathetic stance towards women in male-female relationships. In a certain sense, \u003ci\u003eCity of the Dead\u003c\/i\u003e may be regarded as defining Gao's fundamental view that men possess a flippant and cavalier attitude to their female sexual partner or partners, and that women who become involved in sexual relationships with men are therefore doomed to suffer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmong Gao Xingjian's theatrical portrayals of the female psyche, \u003ci\u003eSong of the Night\u003c\/i\u003e is his most ambitious and most detailed one. Gao's articulation of the female psyche is embedded in a solid substratum bedrock of his autobiographical impulses. It is through female actors, and his range of ingenious theatrical innovations that Gao succeeds in convincingly portraying his personal view of the power dynamics generated in male-female sexual relationships, and how these are played out.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTogether, these two plays advance Gao Xingjian's innovative theatrical experiments in dramatic prose across linguistic and cultural boundaries. The English translations of \u003ci\u003eCity of the Dead\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSong of the Night\u003c\/i\u003e in the present volume will lead to significant English-language productions of these plays, and concomitantly a greater understanding of Gao's plays.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Xingjian Gao","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42980311728246,"sku":"9789629966508","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/ingramacademic.com\/products\/city-of-the-dead-and-song-of-the-night-9789629966508","provider":"Ingram Academic \u0026 Professional","version":"1.0","type":"link"}