摘要：The novels we have chosen from the works of the two writers are Nineteen Roses by Mircea Eliade and The Magus by John Fowles. Both of them are perfect illustrations of the writers' delight in bringing performance elements into the narrative discourse as a means of introducing liveliness, as well as a metaphorical and a mythical element. There are many reasons to suspect that they have a common forerunner in theatrical theory, namely Antonin Artaud. Artaud's innovative ideas manifested in many different forms of experimental theatre, like Living Theatre, Open Theatre, The Performance Group, Environmental Theatre are accepted by Mircea Eliade and find their way, with a real enthusiasm for this type of theatre, into the novel Nineteen Roses as well as short stories like General's Uniforms, Incognito at Buchenwald, Adieu!... Eliade – the novelist – also theorizes on the essence of performance art in The Forbidden Forest (we must not forget that he was also a playwright).
