20th Century Foreign Drama Classics

Author: Chen Dun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: In the history of foreign drama, the 20th century was a period of rapid development and remarkable achievements, as well as a time of diverse schools and complex changes. The earlier trend of having one dominant current in each stage was broken, giving way to the continuous emergence of new schools of thought and trends, forming a situation of pluralistic coexistence, mutual collision, and absorption. In fact, the aforementioned new developments had already begun to show signs as early as the late 19th century. At that time, Western capitalist countries transitioned from free capitalism to monopoly capitalism, with internal social contradictions and conflicts between capitalist nations intensifying to an unprecedented degree. Intellectual, cultural, and literary circles became highly active and complex. Traditional elements lost their stable positions, while anti-traditional and anti-rational ideas such as Nietzsche's philosophy of the übermensch, Schopenhauer's philosophy of life, and Freud's psychoanalysis emerged. In literature, naturalism, aestheticism, and symbolism flourished, challenging realism.