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    Theatre of The Absurd

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    Lakshmipriya P Santhosh
    The document discusses the Theatre of the Absurd, a post-World War II art movement. It originated in France in response to industrialization, advances in science/technology, and the philosophical disillusionment following two world wars. Playwrights like Beckett, Ionesco, and Pinter used absurdist techniques including nonsense dialogue, unclear settings, and plots without solutions. Their plays explored the meaninglessness of human existence and questioned topics like God through characters who express frustration with deep philosophical issues.

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    Theatre of The Absurd

    Uploaded by

    Lakshmipriya P Santhosh
    213 views7 pages
    The document discusses the Theatre of the Absurd, a post-World War II art movement. It originated in France in response to industrialization, advances in science/technology, and the philosophical disillusionment following two world wars. Playwrights like Beckett, Ionesco, and Pinter used absurdist techniques including nonsense dialogue, unclear settings, and plots without solutions. Their plays explored the meaninglessness of human existence and questioned topics like God through characters who express frustration with deep philosophical issues.

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    theatre of the absurd

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    The document discusses the Theatre of the Absurd, a post-World War II art movement. It originated in France in response to industrialization, advances in science/technology, and the philosophical disillusionment following two world wars. Playwrights like Beckett, Ionesco, and Pinter used absurdist techniques including nonsense dialogue, unclear settings, and plots without solutions. Their plays explored the meaninglessness of human existence and questioned topics like God through characters who express frustration with deep philosophical issues.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    213 views7 pages

    Theatre of The Absurd

    Uploaded by

    Lakshmipriya P Santhosh
    The document discusses the Theatre of the Absurd, a post-World War II art movement. It originated in France in response to industrialization, advances in science/technology, and the philosophical disillusionment following two world wars. Playwrights like Beckett, Ionesco, and Pinter used absurdist techniques including nonsense dialogue, unclear settings, and plots without solutions. Their plays explored the meaninglessness of human existence and questioned topics like God through characters who express frustration with deep philosophical issues.

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    THEATRE OF THE

    ABSURD
    WHAT DOES THE TERM ‘ABSURD’
    MEAN?
    • “wildly unreasonable, illogical, or inappropriate” – literal meaning.
    • Absurd originally means ‘out of harmony’ in a musical context.
    • In common usage, ‘absurd’ may simply mean ‘ridiculous.
    • The term ‘Absurd’ was first used with its modem implications in the work of the Danish philosopher
    Soren Kierkegaard- he described Christianity as absurd.
    • The ‘Absurd’ in life, art and literature arose due to several reasons.
     industrialization
     growth of science and technology
     evil consequences of two world wars
     existential philosophy and the resultant loss of faith.
    THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
    • Originated in France after the second world war.
    • term ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ was coined by Martin Esslin (1962)
    • Mainly the artistic expression of Albert Camus’s existential philosophy- in ‘The Myth of
    Sisyphus’
    • According to Esslin, the five defining playwrights of the movement are Eugène Ionesco,
    Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Arthur Adamov, and Harold Pinter.
    • Other playwrights associated with this type of theatre include Tom Stoppard, Arthur Kopit,
    Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Fernando Arrabal, Edward Albee, N.F. Simpson, Boris Vian, Peter
    Weiss, Vaclav Havel, and Jean Tardieu.
    CHARACTERISTICS OF ABSURD
    PLAY
    • represent human existence as nonsensical and often chaotic.
    • Dialogue is often redundant( not useful).
    • Setting is usually unclear.
    • characters express frustration with deep, philosophical questions, such as the meaning of life
    and death and the existence of God.
    • Audience are often alienated
    • Plot can be both comic and tragic
    • Character, especially protagonist in the Theatre of the Absurd, has special personalities and
    nature-talk to themselves continually or repeatedly-their words and sentences are interrupted
    or disordered.
    CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
    THEATRE OF ABSURD (CONTD.)
    • Language is unsettled, irregular and vague
    • Ending does not offer solutions to the discussed problem.
    • Reality often merges into fantasy
    • Characters often lack motivation
    SOME FAMOUS ABSURD PLAYS
    • Waiting for Godot (1953)- Samuel Beckett
    • The Bald Soprano(1950) – Eugene Ionesco
    • The Birthday Party (1958) – Harold Pinter
    • Evam Indrajith (1963) – Badal Sircar
    • The Maids (1947) – Jean Genet
    THANK YOU 

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