Absurdism

About This Presentation

Title:

Description:

Number of Views:1063

Avg rating:3.0/5.0

Slides: 16

Provided by: home2

Category:

Tags: absurdism | de | france | stage | tour

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: Absurdism

1
Absurdism

2
Theatre of the Absurd

Term coined by Hungarian-born critic Martin
Esslin, who made it the title of his 1962 book on
the subject.
The term refers to a particular type of play
which first became popular during the 1950s and
1960s.
It presented on stage the philosophy articulated
by French philosopher Albert Camus in his 1942
essay, The Myth of Sisyphus, in which he defines
the human condition as basically meaningless and
absurd.

Though the Theatre of the Absurd is often traced
back to avant-garde experiments of the 1920s and
1930s, its roots, in actuality, date back much
further.
Absurd elements first made their appearance
shortly after the rise of Greek drama.
The morality plays of the Middle Ages may be
considered a precursor to the Theatre of the
Absurd, depicting everyman-type characters
dealing with allegorical and sometimes
existential problems.
It was also strongly influenced by the traumatic
experience of the horrors of the Second World
War.

Theatre of the Absurd aims to create a
ritual-like, mythological, allegorical vision,
closely related to the world of dreams.
The focal point of these dreams is often man's
confusion, stemming from the fact that he has no
answers to the basic existential questions why
we are alive, why we have to die, why there is
injustice and suffering.
One of the most important aspects of absurd drama
is its distrust of language as a means of
communication. Language, it seems to say, has
become nothing but a vehicle for
conventionalized, stereotyped, meaningless
exchanges.
Absurd drama subverts logic. It relishes the
unexpected and the logically impossible.

5
Playwrights

Samuel Beckett from Ireland
Eugène Ionesco from Romania
Arthur Adamov from Russia
Fernando Arrabal from Spain
Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, N. F. Simpson, James
Saunders, and David Campton from the United
States
Yordan Radichov from Bulgaria

6
Samuel Beckett

Born in Dablin, April 13, 1906 into a prosperous
Protestant family.
He was educated at the Portora Royal School and
Trinity College, Dublin, where he took a B.A.
degree in 1927.
Beckett worked as a teacher in Belfast and
lecturer in English at the École Normale
Supérieure in Paris.

In Paris Beckett became friend with James Joyce,
a great Irish writer.
In 1931 Beckett returned to Dublin and received
his M.A. in 1931.
He taught French at Trinity College until 1932,
when he resigned to devote his time entirely to
writing.
In 1961 he married with Suzanne
Dechevaux-Dumesnil, who at that time was a piano
student.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in
1969 for a body of work that includes novels,
essays, poems and plays.
Died 20 years later in Paris December 22, at the
age of 83.

8
Becketts workDramatic works - Theatre

10
Waiting for Godot - Beckett

Waiting for Godot brought Beckett international
fame and established him as one of the leading
names of the theater of the absurd.
Tragi-comedy in two acts, opened at the Théâtre
de Babylone on January 5, 1953.
In Act I two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, who
call each other Gogo and Didi, meet near a bare
tree on a country road and wait for the promised
arrival of Godot. To fill the boredom they try to
recall their past, tell jokes, eat, and speculate
about Godot. In Act II Vladimir and Estragon
still wait, and Godot sends a promising message.
The two men try to hang themselves and then
declare their intention of leaving, but they have
no energy to move.

11
Eugène Ionesco

Born in Slatina, Romania November 26,1909 of a
French mother and Romanian father.
He studied literature in Paris and in Romania and
eventually took a degree in French at the
University of Bucharest.
In 1936 he married Rodica Burileano, a student of
law and philosophy whit whom he had a daughter.
Died in Paris March 28, 1994.

Ionesco did not write his first play until 1950.
At the age of 40 he decided to learn English
using the Assimil method, conscientiously copying
whole sentences in order to memorize them.
Ionesco rejected the logical plot, character
development, and thought of traditional drama,
instead creating his own anarchic form of comedy
to convey the meaninglessness of modern man's
existence in a universe ruled by chance.
His awards include the Tours Festival Prize for
film, 1959 Prix Italia, 1963 Society of Authors
theatre prize, 1966 Grand Prix National for
theatre, 1969 Monaco Grand Prix, 1969 Austrian
State Prize for European Literature, 1970
Jerusalem Prize, 1973 and honorary doctorates
from New York University and the universities of
Louvain (France), Warwick (England), and Tel Aviv
(Israel). He was elected into the Académie
Française in 1970.