Abstract
These characteristics are commonly observed in Japanese traditional performing arts, and have been considered an important aspect of performance up until the present day. One wonders, however, whether they are uniquely Japanese. In this chapter, the author will attempt to answer this question by comparing the work of Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949), a symbolist writer whom the author has been researching for many years, with plays written by Japanese writers who were influenced by Maeterlinck at the time they wrote their works. As a place where living human beings perform in the flesh in front of a live audience, the theater presents a world of fiction and fantasy using drama as a medium but at the same time always conveys a sense of the here-and-now, no matter how many years previous the drama was written.
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Notes
- 1.
Maurice Maeterlinck, Théâtre complet, presenté par Martine de Rougemont, Slatkin, Collection Ressources, Paris, Genève, p. 1.
- 2.
In the same way as followers of Richard Wagner are referred to as Wagnerians, the followers of Maeterlinck are referred to as Maeterlinckians.
- 3.
“ Countless things are telling us that such an era is approaching. Perhaps such an era shall arrive soon. An era when our souls can directly understand each other without relying on our senses.” (Maurice Maeterlinck, Go Yamazaki, The Treasure of the Humble, Hirakawa edition, Tokyo, p. 18)
- 4.
Mood drama, emotional drama, symbolist drama, while nuances are slightly different and overlap, have been used in the history of contemporary plays. At that time, Maeterlinckian one-act plays were referred to as “mood dramas” or “emotional dramas.”
- 5.
Op.cit., 3.
References
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Anazawa, M. (2017). The Ma of Maeterlinck and Ma of Japanese Maeterlinckians. In: Kodama, M. (eds) Ma Theory and the Creative Management of Innovation. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59194-4_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59194-4_8
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