格拉特-梅内特、罗宾逊、朱天曙主编的《中国曲艺(英文版)》分为六章,前三章从曲艺的文化、艺术传统和表演艺术三个层面对曲艺进行了总体的历史性概述,后三章分析列举了四种有代表性的曲艺形式——说书、弹词、鼓曲和相声。中国曲艺系统又简单明了地从文化、艺术的角度对曲艺的发展与具体形式做了详细考察。全稿在阐释了中国曲艺文化独特魅力的同时,不时关注到民间艺术发展的整个历史文化背景。
Chapter Ⅰ Folk Performing Art's Place in Chinese Culture
Section Ⅰ Folk Performing Art Genius
Section Ⅱ The Popularization of Entertainment
Section Ⅲ Representatives of the Common People
Chapter Ⅱ Artistic Traditions in Chinese Folk Performing Art
Section Ⅰ Xia Li Ba Ren
Section Ⅱ Comedy and Humor
Section Ⅲ Seize the Moment
Chapter Ⅲ Performance Techniques
Section Ⅰ The Art of Expression
Section Ⅱ Entry and Exit
Section Ⅲ Performance and Appreciation
Chapter Ⅳ The Art of Storytelling
Section Ⅰ The Origin of the Storytelling
Section Ⅱ The Spirit, Form and Language of Storytelling
Section Ⅲ Improving Storytelling: Liu Jingting (1587-1670)
Section Ⅳ Continuing the Storytelling Tradition
Chapter Ⅴ Tanci and Guqu
Section Ⅰ The Artistic Charm of Tanci
Section Ⅱ Continuing the Art of Tanci
Section Ⅲ The Artistic Charm of Guqu
Section Ⅳ Continuing the Art of Guqu
Chapter Ⅵ Cross Talk
Section Ⅰ Performance Skills
Section Ⅱ Cross Talk's Performance Characteristics
Section Ⅲ The Great Master of Cross Talk: Hou Baolin
Section Ⅳ Continuing the Tradition of Cross Talk
Author's Note
A Brief Chronology of Chinese History