Metadramatic Characteristics in Our Town

吕凤翔

【摘要】There are many researches on Thornton Wilder and his works.But few are concerned about his metadramatic characteristics.This article is about Our Town.The plot and the characters show it is a metadrama.

【關键词】Metadrama；Our Town；Thornton Wilder

【中图分类号】I712 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】2095-3089（2017）10-0012-02

Ⅰ.Introduction

Our Town is written in 1938 by Thornton Wilder，who spent much of his childhood in China and was the only author to receive Pulitzer Prizes for both drama and fiction.Our Town establishes him as a major American dramatist.This play describes the life of the common people who live in a common town — Grovers Corners，New Hampshire.The time is in about 1901- 1913.The major characters are the Webs and the Gibbs.The play uses the dramatization to shows an old theme – “the meaning of the human life.”

But this play not only conveys only a theme，it means more.It affirms the value of the common life and some transcendent spirit（Xu Qing，2012）.

The play consists of three acts：Daily Life，Love and Marriage and Rebirth.It seems like ones all life：birth，marriage and death.So，the whole play is structured around the theme.For example，marriage is a beginning of a new life；the milk deliver – Howie Newsome，dedicates to his cause；Joe Stoddard carries on his brother‘s cause to deliver newspapers，all of which represent life is eternal and life goes on.

The first reason why this play is so unique is the role of Stage Manager.He is multi-functional，for in the whole play，he knows everything，past，present and the future.He is a narrator and role in the play.He can talk to the actor in the play and also can talk to the audience out the play.The play is just like a person tells the audience a story and during the process of telling，many actors perform the plot of the story.The second reason is the after death of Emily Webb.In the Act Three，Stage Manager arranges Emily to come back on February 11th，1899.Stage manager tells the audience this is fourteen years ago.Few plays are about a persons rebirth after death.In this play，Emily can speak to her mother—the dead，can speak to the audience and Stage Manager，and also can speak to her mother – the living，in her past life.

The author of the article finds that Richard Hornbys five types of metadrama are very fit to study the play.And it is easy to see that Wilder blends the five types in this play，which convinces the current writer the play is a metadrama.So，the article will be concerned about the metadramatic characteristics of Our Town.It will be analyzed from the five types，as they will be introduced in detail as follows.It will explain how Wilder blend the five varieties of conscious in Our Town.

Ⅱ.Metadrama

A.Definition of Metadrama

Metafiction has been the focus of attention in the literary critics.Few studies focus on the metadrama，even refer to it.In actual fact，metadrama is put forward earlier than metafiction.This term comes very first from Lionel Abels book Metadrama：A New View of Dramatic Form in 1963.In fact，before Abel，many scholars had put forward issues related to self-consciousness，but did not develop it into the metadrama.In this book Abel preliminary defines the term.He thought this kind of play mainly represents the dramatic life.He argues that “play in play” is the common way for playwrights to create plays.But he explicitly pointes out that metadrama is not a new play in modern and postmodern times，but a new direction to study the play，and it is used to discover many plays with self-consciousness，and these plays will be given the new value of interpretation.From the aspect，the metadrama is only defined preliminarily and later it would not avoid becoming “Panmetadrama”.So，Abel just consideres metadrama as a kind of view，not as a kind of play，which made the definition very blur.Then，in Drama，Metadrama and Perception，Richard Hornby also gave the definition.

All in all，it is Abel who laid the foundation to study metadrama that is the “self-consciousness”，from which later researches start，and which becomes the definition and premise of the metadrama.

B.Types of the Metadrama

In the book of Drama，Metadrama and Perception，Richard Hornby says the possible varieties of conscious or overt metadrama are as follows：1）the play within the play，2）the ceremony within the play，3）role playing within the role，4）literary and real-life reference，and 5）self reference（Richard Hornby，1986）.But he emphasizes that few metadramas belong to one kind of the five kinds，they are always appearing together or intermingling.

With regard to the play within the play，Hornby states that rising and falling the curtain cannot produce the effect；it must be a mingle in function on and off screen.As for the ceremony within the play，it is similar to the first one.The ceremony is a ubiquitous phenomenon in human society，such as weddings，funerals，initiation rite and others.The ceremony is culture-related and it conveys a lot of important social value.And it is a part of “drama/culture complex”.As to role playing within the role，it means what kind of role the character wants to be.The role can be divided into three kinds：voluntary，involuntary and allegorical.The first kind is like the Mr.Earnest Worthing who Algernon plays voluntarily as Johns imaginary brother to express his love for Cecily.The second kind is that the role is passively disguised under certain situation.The third kind is that the role is well known by people and the role always has a specific explicit meaning.

In Drama，Metadrama，and Perception，he discusses the drama and reality.He argues that the drama did not reflect the real life，but the drama itself.As to literary and real-life reference，he points out that the drama can produce self-reference：drama is always compared with people，things，and objects in real life.So，the drama can refer to the literature and life.As to the last one self reference，he stresses it is the strongest to express the metadramas characteristics.The character can talk to the audience and be aware that he is acting at that time.The character initiatively exposes his fictionality and get closer to the audience.

Ⅲ.Some Researches on Our Town and Thornton Wilder

As the only author to receive Pulitzer Prizes for both drama and fiction，Thornton Wilder is “the most neglected author of a brilliant generation”（Cowley，1975）.He has received little or no attention in recent critical studies of twentieth-century American drama and fiction，and his works do not appear in recently published anthologies of American literature and drama（Zhou Bo，2012）.Although Wilder has written many works，such as these novels：The Bridge of San Luis Rey，Our Town，The Skin of Our Teeth，The Woman of Andros，Heavens My Destination and so on.Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth are often mentioned in their studies.It is said that Wilder is affected by German expressionism，and many scholars study the expressionism in Our Town.

Shen Min and Tang Jian（2002） state that Wilder uses the expressionism skill to express the theme.They discusses the expressionism can be found in the stage and acting style.Light and music are two means to express the stage effect.There are many different kinds of music in the whole play.And in different occasions，different music will be played.And in the whole play，how to use light is mentioned for many times.

Many researches are concerned about the theme of Our Town.Xu Qing（2012）systematically studies the theme of the play：1）the universality and durability of the daily life；2）transcendentalism—as a part of the universe，human has an eternal value.

Because Wilder spent much of his childhood in Yantai，Shandong，China，his works are inevitably branded by China play.And he has learned from Chinese famous drama actor Mei Lanfang.So many scholars are interested in comparing his works with Chinese opera.Ding Fang（2009）states in Our Town，the processing of time and space is very similar to Chinese opera and the way of processing causes the frequent breakage of the audience psychological acceptance.But in China，the way of processing is well accepted by the audience.So，in this aspect，they are different.

Ⅳ.Conclusion

Our Town is often studied by scholars but few studies are from this perspective.The author of the current study uses Hornbys theory of metadrama to analyze its metadramatic characteristics.And it is found that according to Hornby，Our Town is a typical metadrama.The current author analyzes Hornbys five varieties of conscious and see how Wilder uses them in his play.The play is very interesting and it is believable that the play still can be studied from other different perspectives，but the article can provide a new understanding of the play.

In this article，the author mainly pays attention to the metadramatic characteristics of the play，having no discussions about the reasons entirely.So，it can be further investigated from the aspects.Another point is to study how Wilder seeks the balance between Chinese play and American drama to satisfy the audience.And under these influences，it is notable to study how Wilder builds his unique writing style.

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