Boundary Extension—the Impact of Image Intrusion on Drama

This thesis concerns the image intrusion into the space of dramatic stage, aimed at classifying the different degrades of intrusion of image in theater, then outlining it from an aesthetic point of view, and thereby analyzing the impact of image on theater. This paper separates the history of image intrusion into 3 stages as follows: In the first stage, image is used purely as a visual manifestation without further narrative function. In the second stage, image represents as participants of drama narration and change the way it narrates to some extent. The last stage witnessed the extremity of image intrusion in stage 2, which challenges and breaks free from the traditional drama both in its presence and spatiotemporal rules. I will take 3 major directors and their works in accordance with 3 stages for example, exploring practices of image application in drama as an endeavor to unravel the following questions: 1. The initial reason of image intrusion, i.e., how its intrusion converts the dramatic presentation. 2. The shift in image intrusion through time. 3. Comparing with traditional drama, how image intrusion expands the dramatic extension.