Overview
Since relocating to France in 1987, in a voluntary exile from China, he
has assembled a body of dramatic work that has best been understood
neither as expressly Chinese nor French, but as transnational. In this
comprehensive study of his post-exile plays, Mary Mazzilli explores
Gao's plays as examples of postdramatic transnationalism: a
transnational artistic and theatrical trend that is fluid, flexible and
full of variety of styles and influences. As such this innovative
interdisciplinary investigation offers fresh insights on contemporary
theatre. Whereas other publications have considered Gao's work as a
cultural and artistic phenomenon, Gao Xingjian's Post-Exile Plays:
Transnationalism and Postdramatic Theatre is the first study to relate
his plays to postdramatic theatre and to provide close textual and
dramatic analysis that will help readers to better understand his
complex work, and also to see it in the context of the work of
contemporary playwrights such as Martin Crimp, Peter Handke, and
Elfriede Jelinek.
Among the plays discussed are: The Other Shore, written just before he
left China in 1987; Between Life and Death (1991) - compared in detail
to Martin Crimp's Attempts on her life; Dialogue and Rebuttal (1992),
and its relationship to Beckett's Happy Days; Nocturnal Wanderer (1993),
Weekend Quartet (1995), and the latest plays Snow in August (1997),
Death Collector (2000) and Ballade Nocturne (2010).