What are the European tradition and localization factors of American TV series?

First, the influence of European tradition on American drama.

The appearance of American drama is closely related to the appearance of American nation. Therefore, discussing the emergence of a national drama will inevitably involve the origin of the nation. There are often some vague concepts in the definition of nationality, that is, the concepts of clan, race, nationality and country are mixed together. When Stalin discusses that * * * is one of the characteristics of a nation, he analyzes the importance of region by taking English-speaking nations and American nations who speak the same language as examples: "A nation can only be formed through long-term continuous exchanges and people's common life from generation to generation. And the long-term * * life, must * * * the region. Once upon a time, the British and Americans lived in the same area, that is, in Britain, so they were one nation at that time. Later, some British people moved from England to a new area and came to America, so a new nation was gradually formed in this new area, that is, the North American nation. Because of different regions, different nationalities have been formed as a result. " Stalin discussed the formation of American nation and the difference between American nation and British nation from geographical factors. After discussing all the factors of the formation of the nation, Stalin further defined the nation as: "The nation is a stable * * * body with people's language, geography, economic life, culture and psychological quality." According to Stalin's definition, a nation must have four elements: language, region, economic life and cultural and psychological quality. The earliest inhabitants of North America were Indians. However, because the Indians were in a clan society at that time and had no written language, their literary tradition was only oral, not to mention the drama literary tradition. At best, they only have lyrics literature similar to China Yuanqu. As Stalin analyzed, the tradition of American drama must be traced back to the tradition of European drama, because this is a necessary condition for the formation of a nation. In fact, the first professional theatrical troupe established in the North American continent is completely traditional in Britain: all the actors are British immigrants, and all the scenery, costumes and props are brought from Britain. The theatre was named "London Comedy", and staged The Jews in Venice (1752) based on Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. In the history of American drama in the past hundred years, American drama and European drama are inextricably linked. Until the first half of19th century, American drama was still closely related to European poetry and drama, and it was consistent with the drama creation styles of Aeschylus, euripides and Shakespeare in the English Renaissance. Shakespeare and/kloc-the heroic tragedies in Europe in the 0/8th century dominated the stage. From 65438 to 0845, American custom comedies appeared, and Anna Cora Movat was a prolific writer of this kind of drama. However, her novel The Times (1845) is purely European in form, and the author follows the tradition of bourgeois drama in the18th century with an English tone. Another writer, John Brougham, created the satirical play Boca Bontas (1855), which was completely based on American materials, but also transplanted from the standard plays of British theaters. Brougham's Rags (1855) is regarded as an outstanding literary achievement of American playwrights in the19th century. However, the plot of the play is also taken from the Italian writer Dante's Hell.

When American drama entered the earliest stage of realism in the second half of the19th century, James Hearn, a famous playwright, did not break away from the influence of European drama when he created drama from the perspective of Americans, based on his own life experience, observation of life and thinking about society. In his play Margaret Fleming (1890), there is an obvious imitation of the Norwegian playwright Ibsen. David belasco, another important playwright in the history of American drama, brought realism to the American stage in his American drama creation, but when he pursued the artistic effect of the stage, he followed the "fourth wall" theory of French dramatist Antoine: "To make the stage scenery original, credible and eye-catching, we must first design it according to the visual principle ... If it is indoor, it must be within four walls, so the actors don't have to consider the fourth wall. ④

American small theater movement was formed under the influence of European small theater movement. 19 At the end of the 20th century, American melodrama flooded the stage with strong commercial flavor, but serious and life-reflecting works were hard to stand on. This situation is basically the same as that of European drama. The small theater movement first began in the French free theater. Since then, the British Independent Theatre, the Russian Moscow Art Theatre and the Irish National Theatre have been established one after another, forming a trend of drama reform aimed at the increasingly serious commercialization of drama, aiming at non-profit, focusing on improving the quality of drama art and revealing the essence of life. Influenced by the trend of European drama reform, at the beginning of the 20th century, the Washington Square Theatre Company and provine Kingston Theatre Society were established one after another. Except the works of American playwrights Eugene O 'Neill and Sidney Howard, American small theaters basically present the works of European playwrights, including Russian Chekhov and Tolstoy, Belgian maeterlinck, Norwegian Ibsen, British Bernard Shaw, German Toler and Caesar, and Strasbourg, Sweden. Tongren Theatre, composed of members of the Washington Square Troupe, was a great success because of the performance of A Sad Home by Bernard Shaw (19 19), which established Tongren Theatre's position in the small theater movement.

Broadway is synonymous with the prosperity of American drama, while off broadway's plays are the continuation of the small theater movement. Influenced by the development of electronic media and rising prices in the post-modernism stage, the American drama industry was once hit hard. A group of new people in the theater stepped out of Broadway and performed new experimental works, which initiated the famous off broadway drama period in American drama history. In addition to supporting and cultivating innovative playwrights, off broadway Theatre Company has also made great contributions in introducing and introducing European avant-garde dramas. For example, almost all the works of French Hina, Beckett and American Sam Shepard were staged in off broadway. These playwrights were the first to understand the avant-garde movement in Europe, and combined with their own reality to create plays suitable for American characteristics. The famous troupes in off broadway are Life Troupe, Square Circle Troupe, Phoenix Troupe and new york Shakespeare Troupe. It can be said that while absorbing European avant-garde dramas, off broadway has also trained a large number of talented young playwrights for the United States itself.

The 1960s was an era full of contradictions and turbulence. Various artistic schools of rationality and anti-rationality came into being. However, these schools have a lot of negative consciousness, and the older generation of playwrights such as Arthur Miller and tennessee williams entered a period of decline, which led to signs of depression in American dramas. Just like O 'Neill's plays, a new generation of dramatists such as Jack Gelber, Arthur Copil, Jake Richardson and Edward Abiel once again turned their eyes to Europe, trying to get new enlightenment from new drama forms and save American drama from depression. In fact, only Richardson can replace Miller and Williams in the future history of American TV series. Richardson's The Prodigal Son (1960) borrows the theme of Greek tragedy to express the author's view on absurd life, and its peculiar conception and profound implication have attracted the attention of the drama circle.

The opportunistic drama of off broadway's plays is influenced by Dadaism. The founder of Dadaism is Tristan Zara, a French writer. However, off broadway's plays outside the United States did not completely copy the French Dadaism, nor did they undermine the consistency between art and art, but paid attention to the accuracy of sounds and movements of various parts, as well as the inherent nature of their interaction and the role of occasional interference in art, but in any case, one thing is very clear. At this time, "American modern drama has such a tendency: drama is increasingly deviating from the road of literature and moving towards the stage." ⑤ Elmer Rice, a famous playwright, thinks that "literary value is not the standard to measure a play". Arthur miller also believes that "it is necessary to separate drama from what we now consider literature". ⑦ The influence of European drama on the United States in this period is also manifested in the following aspects: The successful performance of the French absurd playwright Black (196 1) laid the foundation for the birth of black drama groups and initiated the prosperity of black drama. At this stage, a number of important African-American playwrights, such as Roland Hansbury, Ed Brice, amiri baraka and Adrijana Kenidi, appeared in the history of American drama, which cultivated new forces for the development of American minority drama literature.

In the 1960s, the drama of the American Experimental Troupe was still closely related to the European drama tradition. Cheickna, an American playwright in this period, once participated in the drama studio of Grotowski, a famous Polish drama innovator, and was deeply influenced by the "simple drama" advocated by Grotowski. Cheickna's Dionysus in 69 (1968) was adapted from Dionysus Companion by the Greek tragic poet euripides. Macbeth, staged by a performance company, is a reconstruction of Shakespeare's original works to show the fascist theme of American society. Xie Kena and the troupe also studied the relevant theories of Fourier, Engels and other European periphery to enrich the connotation of creation.

Influenced by the development trend of American literature, American drama in the 1970s turned to describe the relationship between people and the success or failure of individuals. Anti-war dramas and social drama gradually gave way to personal works. Although the American drama works at this stage are dominated by American themes, traces of European drama traditions still appear from time to time in the drama. David Leibo adapted Orphan (1973) based on Aesop's Orestes trilogy, which is a drama that shows the joys and sorrows of families who lost their sons on the battlefield. John Good, another playwright, left the United States for Europe to look for ideas after his creative failure, and later wrote The Blue House (1970) and Kyle Poirot's Solo (1973).

In addition, many American-born playwrights, such as Henry James, T·S· Eliot and Sam Shepard, are inextricably linked with Europe, especially Britain, and some of them simply become British nationals and become famous British and American writers in the history of drama and literature. It can be said that, to a certain extent, they are all promoters of the globalization of American TV series and have made indelible historical contributions to the prosperity of American TV series.

Judging from the development history of American drama, the input of European drama is gradually weakening. In addition to the ethnic factors mentioned above, it also includes economic and political factors. Because drama belongs to the ideological field, it is bound to be restricted by the economic base. At the beginning, the United States was a new country born out of Britain. Therefore, the American drama in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China must inherit the European drama tradition, especially the British drama. With the improvement of American productivity and the rapid economic development after the war, it is also the inevitable result of historical development that American dramas gradually replace European traditions.

Second, the localization factors of American drama prosperity

Although the United States is a new country formed after cutting the umbilical cord with Britain, American drama is inextricably linked with European tradition, and its prosperity is the product of the combination of European tradition and localization. However, local factors are still the fundamental factors for its development and prosperity.

After the founding of the United States, American dramatists tried to cut the umbilical cord connected with their home country. Through the joint efforts of several generations, this goal has gradually become a reality. The early local drama is a historical drama reflecting the American War of Independence. William dunlap, an American playwright, theater owner, stage artist and drama historian, has made outstanding contributions to the localization of American drama. In 1832, he published the History of American Drama, which is also the first one in the history of American literature. He created and adapted more than 60 plays, most of which were based on American life and events, and the most successful one was Major Andre (1798). Royle Taylor's contribution to American social comedy creation is undeniable. In the process of writing Face to Face (1787), he created characters with strong American rural flavor, and put American rural values on the same position as European traditional values, so as to awaken American rural consciousness. With the relative prosperity of American society in 1870, drama criticism also developed. By 1900, there were 15 daily newspapers in new york alone. Arthur Hornbrugh also founded Drama Magazine (1900), which is devoted to the development of drama.

In terms of localization factors, American playwrights' sense of the times is particularly obvious. As Professor Rubinstein of the United States pointed out in his book The Origin of American Literature: "A great work needs to be deeply rooted in the life of the writer's time. Whether this era is favorable or unfavorable, conscious or unconscious, realistic or symbolic, it is true for writers. The greater the writer, the more individual he is, so when he speaks for himself, the more profoundly he represents everyone. As van wyck brooks said in his groundbreaking book The Future Era of America, "The deeper and more anxious you feel about social pressure, the deeper, clearer and more productive you will be." "⑧

Marked by Eugene O 'Neill being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, American drama flourished in the 20th century. In the history of English drama, O 'Neill is usually regarded by critics as the representative of the third generation of English playwrights after Shakespeare and Bernard Shaw. In the history of American literature, he is recognized as the father of American drama. He turned his creative attention to criticizing and exposing the ugly side of American real life. "He thought very early that life meant tragedy. Presumably, his pessimism, on the one hand, is his nature, on the other hand, it is a branch of modern literary trend, which can be called a profound personality's backwash to American old-fashioned optimism. However, whatever the source of his pessimism is, his development direction is clear; He gradually became a unique and sharp tragic writer, and now he is famous all over the world. The concept of life he provided is not the product of hard thinking, but it has some real marks that can stand the test. It is based on an extremely sharp and heartbreaking understanding of life, and it is also fascinated by the beauty of human destiny formed in the struggle with opportunities. " Pet-name ruby Although O 'Neill also kept close contact with European philosophical tradition, O 'Neill wanted to discuss American problems with the help of European philosophical thought. In O 'Neill's era, the anti-rational naturalistic creative thought has been gradually replaced by existentialism philosophy and Freud's psychological philosophy. "Influenced by naturalistic philosophy, most American writers in the first half regard the opposition between personal will and unexplained and mechanical fate as the ultimate tragedy of human life. Existentialism holds that human life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. What people should care about is not his ultimate fate, but how to experience the present life to the maximum and strongest. Therefore, O 'Neill's later plays' most accurately pointed out the development trend of American drama in the next stage' "Attending O 'Neill's creation stage is in the heyday of modernism, but his drama creation has once again returned to the path of realism after experiencing the creation practice of realism, symbolism, expressionism and stream of consciousness. After O 'Neill's second comeback, the social tragedies "The Iceman Comes" (1939) and "Long Day at Night" (194 1) all achieved great success. The fundamental reason is that the playwright tells the family tragedy stories of ordinary Americans, reflecting the suffering of the little people at the bottom of society and the reflection caused by it, that is, from the height of ultimate power in the tragic world. This is of great theoretical significance for modern people to understand the relationship between people and families, people and society, and then overcome the tension of modern people's survival dilemma. "

On the road of localization, American drama in the mid-20th century focused on reflecting the survival dilemma of modern people, but it had the characteristics of diversity in expression forms. Two other famous American dramatists after O 'Neill were arthur miller and tennessee williams. As writers who are concerned about the plight of modern people, O 'Neill and Miller are concerned about the relationship between people, people and society, and people and families. Williams, on the other hand, discusses the isolation between people and the outside world, the lack of communication between people, and how to seek their own value alone in a chaotic world.

Miller's social drama is tragic in the modern sense. Although Miller inherited Ibsen's social drama tradition in his drama creation, he did not completely copy and imitate Ibsen's drama creation, but thought that his era was different from that of Ibsen or Bernard Shaw. Therefore, besides discussing the age-old question of how we should live, we should also further explore people's psychology. "This generation of social drama must not only stay in analyzing and criticizing the intertwined social relations. It must explore the essence of human existence and find out what his needs are, so that these needs can be valued and satisfied in society. Therefore, if the new social playwright wants to do his job well, he must be a better psychologist than in the past, and at least realize that it is futile to close people's psychological world, otherwise he will never write a tragedy and will fall into the swamp of pity again and again. The water there is the tears of the old times, not the rich sea to create a new life. " His social tragedy Death of a Salesman (1949) is also recognized by critics as a new chapter in the history of American drama because it pays attention to the social function and moral education of drama works.

The theme of Williams' drama creation is mostly the life and characters in the southern United States, which is closely related to the works of southern writers such as william faulkner, carson mccullers and Thomas Wolfe. Williams pays attention to the individual, not the society with overall significance. His creative tendency, coupled with his lyrical language, makes his works in sharp contrast with those of the famous contemporary writer Miller. In the famous drama A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Williams reveals that "all kinds of barbaric forces in modern society raped those gentle, sensitive and elegant people" with the help of problem research. In Williams' works, the heroine Blanche is such a typical gentle, sensitive and elegant person. In fact, Blanche is a symbol of the injured, fugitives, disabled, lonely, unsociable and lonely, and their destruction is inevitable.

The representative writer off Broadway is Sam Shepard. After the United States entered the post-modern society, American industrial automation promoted the great development of material civilization. However, the material prosperity has caused the "inhuman" situation of people's thinking computerization. Sheppard's works conform to the development of this historical trend, grasp the contradictory characteristics between contemporary material civilization and spiritual civilization at the point of integration of localization and Europeanization, and show the reality of indifference and estrangement between generations. Sheppard is a typical American writer with modern American culture. "In recent years, although he lived in London most of the time, he was a man with American flavor in his bone marrow: American myths and images, American rhythm and language, American hopes and fears, American fantasies and nightmares. It is almost impossible to find a second writer like Shepard, who rebelled against everything he saw and at the same time embodied the birthplace of all these things so completely. Like many others, he loves and is obsessed with the United States in the past, but even if it is not the United States now, he is shocked by the United States that is about to become. "

Another feature of the localization of American drama is to transform the great figures in traditional drama into ordinary little people who describe society. "The most striking feature of modern American social tragedy is to let the officialdom dignitaries give way to the common people, that is, let the little people occupy the stage. This is by no means a simple question for a playwright to choose characters in his drama creation, but a matter of principle for whom his drama creation serves. This is in sharp contrast with Aristotle's tragedy theory. According to Aristotle's theory, only by describing the great men in the upper class and the protagonist of the tragedy is the suffering, death or decline of the hero can the significance of the tragedy be shown. Undeniably, heroes are of great significance in promoting social development. However, it is the broad masses of the people who really push history forward. Therefore, while reflecting the upper class, drama must not neglect to represent the majority of the people; While reflecting the historical development process promoted by the upper class, we can't ignore the role of the lower class, which accounts for the vast majority. In the process of the development of modern American drama, playwrights firmly grasped this point. " Whether realistic writers Eugene O 'Neill, arthur miller and tennessee williams, or postmodern writer Sam Shepard, they have made unremitting efforts in expressing the common people. Since 1980s, American TV dramas have paid more attention to the relationship between human beings and today's society, and paid more attention to the problems faced in real life, such as human status in developed society, ethnic relations, nuclear disarmament, AIDS crisis and so on. Although the expressions of these playwrights are quite different, they have achieved similar results in expressing the good wishes of the lower classes and the disillusionment of the "American Dream".

Third, reflection on European tradition and localization.

The history of American drama occupies an important position in the history of American literature. Therefore, the globalization of American literature is also the development process of the globalization of American drama. "Globalization has been a hot topic since 1980s. However, the development of American literature has the nature of globalization from the beginning. Absorbing the essence of world literature, especially the advanced European philosophy, coupled with the native American materials and national spirit, laid the foundation for the emergence of American literature and promoted the prosperity and output of American literature in the 20 th century. " The development history of American drama has completely inherited the whole process of the development of American literature and has all the characteristics of literary globalization.

The European tradition of American drama is closely related to cultural globalization. "The cultural environment in which people grew up has transcended the boundaries between nations and countries. In the global cultural information atmosphere, members of all nationalities and countries can enjoy the material civilization and spiritual civilization belonging to the whole earth. Although people still maintain their own national and national characteristics to a great extent, they are largely integrated into a whole through "integration", making a global culture that transcends national boundaries, social systems and ideologies exist in the world. The sublation of European drama tradition by American drama is the embryonic form of American drama globalization. At present, the biggest paradox of globalization theory is westernization or nationalization, which is a new problem under the new situation. For China, this is a question of Westernization (especially Americanization) or the independence of the Chinese nation. If we don't open the door, we can't get the greatest benefit on the road of "interdependence and common development"; However, opening to the outside world will inevitably lead to the transfer of national sovereignty, which has long been a core issue in China academic circles. For the United States, the situation is completely different. The United States and Europe, especially Britain, have a mother-child relationship and are newborns born in Britain. Therefore, it is natural to inherit the cultural traditions of Britain and Europe. In addition, globalization includes three categories: economy, politics and culture. Looking at the history of American drama development from a larger scope, the United States is the biggest beneficiary under the influence of the development of political philosophy, psychological philosophy and science of science in Britain and Europe. Then, it is reasonable that the British and European drama traditions take root in the United States. One of the characteristics of American drama in the process of globalization is the compatibility of world drama. Europe is the birthplace of modern world civilization, and a large number of world-class masters such as Shakespeare, Ibsen and Bernard Shaw have appeared in the history of drama. Lineal relatives of American nation and European nation determines that American drama can directly draw nutrition from European drama tradition to develop its own drama career. Among American dramatists, there are quite a few people who have nepotism with Europe. They are either European immigrants or their descendants. Even if they don't have a European background, they have to travel across the ocean to Europe to find ideas on the spot or indirectly obtain European ideas from the study of European classics. However, American dramatists, especially modern and contemporary dramatists, have not completely copied the creation mode of European drama in the long history of American drama development. Instead, while studying Europe, I studied the background and development direction of American drama, and discussed the relationship between people, people and society, people and families, and people and nature after the United States entered the middle class, so that American thought and European thought could be merged in the collision, and European drama tradition could be combined with the theme of American nation, thus achieving American drama.

European factors and localization factors in the history of American drama development provide a mirror for the development of China's drama. China's plays have been brilliant in history. However, with the rapid development of post-modern society today, how to open China's dramas to the outside world, boldly absorb the outstanding heritage of western dramas, and not lose the national characteristics of China's dramas is a difficult problem to be solved urgently in front of China's drama circles. In the process of globalization today, it is essentially the export of powerful countries represented by the United States to the third world. It is undeniable that while the United States has achieved the leading position in the world of modern and contemporary drama, its output is bound to have a tendency of cultural post-colonialism, which is determined by the ideological attribute of drama. Therefore, "in the process of implementing the open policy, we must adhere to the principle of' taking the essence, discarding the dross, making the past serve the present and making foreign things serve China' ... We can't mix the good with the bad, but can only choose advanced ideas suitable for China's national conditions to overcome the obstacles that hinder our old ideas in the process of social development, that is, we must correctly look at the essence of globalization and realize its duality. Influenced by post-modern media such as TV, computer and internet, especially the huge impact of TV series on the formation of traditional stage plays, some people think that drama will never be circulated as before. We should also make a dialectical analysis of this phenomenon. It can be said that the popularity of electronic media and the Internet has indeed played a huge role in information globalization that traditional media cannot play. However, as a popular art form, drama will never die out. Take American TV series as an example. August Wilson, a black playwright, is a new star in the 1980s. When his "Lenny menstruation's Black Hip Dance" was staged in new york on 1984, it immediately caused a sensation on Broadway. Since then, his The Hedge (1987) has won the Best Drama Award in pulitzer prize for drama and New York, Outstanding Broadway Drama Award by Foreign Critics, Outstanding New Drama Award in Drama Stage and Tony Award for Best Drama. In fact, this drama includes all the best drama awards of the five major drama awards in the United States, which is unprecedented in the history of American drama. Another black writer, Charles Fowler's The Soldier's Drama, also achieved great success in the performance. 1982 won the Pulitzer Prize, and 1984 was adapted into the film The Story of a Soldier, which became the highest-grossing film noir and was nominated as a candidate film for the 57th Academy Awards. These two examples show that as long as drama creation can keep pace with the times, grasp the pulse of the times and closely follow the lives of the broad audience, then drama works will win the audience and be successful. Globalization is a double-edged sword, with both opportunities and challenges. For China's dramas, we can only follow the trend of historical development and learn from the advantages of foreign dramas like the United States without losing our own national characteristics. Taking the theme of the times as the keynote, grasping the audience's needs and consumption psychology, grasping the commercial operation mechanism of drama, and swimming in the tide of drama globalization, China's drama will go out of the trough and create more glory.