Papers by Usama Ibrahim
English Literature
On the verge of death and in the Autumn of their lives, Clarissa Dalloway, in Woolf’s Mrs. Dallow... more On the verge of death and in the Autumn of their lives, Clarissa Dalloway, in Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, and Eguchi Yoshio, in Kawabata’s The House of the Sleeping Beauties, find themselves facing the existential realization that life has been stripped out of them. The past is all that is left for them, but the present is all they have. They are haunted by the ticking of the cosmic clock, so they resort to their memories to shun death. The apparition of death, nevertheless, reveals itself for both protagonists at the zenith of their celebration of life, and this existential realization is carried out within a Modernist framework in which the narrative style gives meaning to the content of both works.
On the verge of death and in the Autumn of their lives, Clarissa Dalloway, in Woolf's Mrs. Dallow... more On the verge of death and in the Autumn of their lives, Clarissa Dalloway, in Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, and Eguchi Yoshio, in Kawabata's The House of the Sleeping Beauties, find themselves facing the existential realization that life has been stripped out of them. The past is all that is left for them, but the present is all they have. They are haunted by the ticking of the cosmic clock, so they resort to their memories to shun death. The apparition of death, nevertheless, reveals itself for both protagonists at the zenith of their celebration of life, and this existential realization is carried out within a Modernist framework in which the narrative style gives meaning to the content of both works.
Western culture was redefined in the light of the calamity of World War II and its atrocities. A ... more Western culture was redefined in the light of the calamity of World War II and its atrocities. A sense of senselessness spread out, and meaninglessness possessed meaningit was an era of chaos, or was it really like that? The consequential European civilization of World War II is more plausibly seen as a synthesis of the antecedents and the aftermath. Europe, at that era, was actually looking back in philosophical curiosity and not in 'anger.' This philosophical attitude led to reevaluations of the relationship between system and chaos on all academic levels, especially in the theatre. A new dramatic genre originated from these sources and delved deep in analyzing their relations, i.e. the Theatre of the Absurd. Such an argument is actually the focus of the current paper, and it is fulfilled through analyzing a sample play entitled Professor Taranne Arthur Adamov.
Usama Ibrahim, 2022
On the verge of death and in the Autumn of their lives, Clarissa Dalloway, in Mrs. Dalloway, and ... more On the verge of death and in the Autumn of their lives, Clarissa Dalloway, in Mrs. Dalloway, and Eguchi, in The House of the Sleeping Beauties, find themselves facing the existential realization that life is stripped out of them. The past is all what is left for them; the present is all what they have. They are haunted by the ticking of the cosmic clock, so they resort to their memories in order to shun death. The apparition of death nevertheless reveals itself for both protagonists at the zenith of their celebration of life, and this existential realization is carried out through a Modernist framework.
Thesis Chapters by Usama Ibrahim
Chaos is deemed as an evil power of destruction; the Absurd is considered a meaningless concept; ... more Chaos is deemed as an evil power of destruction; the Absurd is considered a meaningless concept; the Theatre of the Absurd is treated as purposeless short-lived phenomenon without any depth; that is the common yet non-professional view of these concepts. Nevertheless, chaos is the prism through which the old dying system goes through to deliver a new hybrid one. The Absurd does not differ in terms of plurality; its range of meanings includes one that is rarely mentioned: out of harmony – this signifies the state of being different, independent, or unique. The Theatre of the Absurd as well is meticulously structured, and its assumed chaos hides layers of meanings which are not disclosed until the very end of the dramatic works where Absurdity truly manifests itself. Suggesting such a conceptual difference might be problematic and challenging for traditional view of the Theatre of the Absurd.
The plays discussed in the dissertation comes as a reflection of this binary of order-chaos. In Professor Taranne by Arthur Adamov, the incidents in the two scenes of the play echo one another, and characters, Taranne and Ménard per se, are depicted as similar, yet the end is open to interpretations that negate this structure. The Tree Climber by Tawfiq al-Hakim is not different; the circular structure of the two acts is undercut by the finale as well. The Lover by Harold Pinter is different in terms of the system of the structure, for it is accumulative, but the end is open to interpretations that stand against the system of the play too.
The most convenient and logical solution for this problematic relation of chaos and order is then orderly disorder. Nothing is utterly ordered; it stagnates into routine. Nothing is totally chaotic; it is the end then. Both terms of this equation are intermingled according to their own harmony.
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Papers by Usama Ibrahim
Thesis Chapters by Usama Ibrahim
The plays discussed in the dissertation comes as a reflection of this binary of order-chaos. In Professor Taranne by Arthur Adamov, the incidents in the two scenes of the play echo one another, and characters, Taranne and Ménard per se, are depicted as similar, yet the end is open to interpretations that negate this structure. The Tree Climber by Tawfiq al-Hakim is not different; the circular structure of the two acts is undercut by the finale as well. The Lover by Harold Pinter is different in terms of the system of the structure, for it is accumulative, but the end is open to interpretations that stand against the system of the play too.
The most convenient and logical solution for this problematic relation of chaos and order is then orderly disorder. Nothing is utterly ordered; it stagnates into routine. Nothing is totally chaotic; it is the end then. Both terms of this equation are intermingled according to their own harmony.
The plays discussed in the dissertation comes as a reflection of this binary of order-chaos. In Professor Taranne by Arthur Adamov, the incidents in the two scenes of the play echo one another, and characters, Taranne and Ménard per se, are depicted as similar, yet the end is open to interpretations that negate this structure. The Tree Climber by Tawfiq al-Hakim is not different; the circular structure of the two acts is undercut by the finale as well. The Lover by Harold Pinter is different in terms of the system of the structure, for it is accumulative, but the end is open to interpretations that stand against the system of the play too.
The most convenient and logical solution for this problematic relation of chaos and order is then orderly disorder. Nothing is utterly ordered; it stagnates into routine. Nothing is totally chaotic; it is the end then. Both terms of this equation are intermingled according to their own harmony.