Teatro, attori e subalternità ne Il sogno della camera rossa

Abstract

The article focuses on a masterpiece of Chinese literature: The Dream of the Red Chamber and investigates into the dynamics governing the relationships between actors and society during the Qing dynasty. This analysis will be carried on by means of significant episodes of the novel. It will be shown how actors are able to establish a micro-society (exemplified by a troupe employed within a court), that is the most actual alternative to the severe and strict dominant schemes. This group is criticized and misunderstood due to its distance from common morality, resulting in a complex mixture of subservience and effective dominance. In fact, its dependent role within elitist society, reveals to be revertible through the development of a symbolic autonomy, opposite to the real decadence of masters, who end up to be the actual servants. The particular freedom carried on by actors, also thanks to their art, becomes the way they use their influence onto the social environment.