The Absurd
• There is an attempt to subvert the foundations of our accepted modes
of thought and experience so as to reveal the meaninglessness of
existence and the underlying “abyss,” or “void,” or “nothingness” on
which any supposed security is conceived to be precariously
suspended.
Literature of the Absurd
• The literature has its roots also in the movements of expressionism and surrealism, as well as
in the fiction, written in the 1920s, of Franz Kafka (The Trial, Metamorphosis).
• The current movement, however, emerged in France after the horrors of World War II (1939–
45) as a rebellion against basic beliefs and values in traditional culture and literature.
• After the second World War in writings of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus: human life a
fruitless search for purpose and significance, as it moves from the nothingness whence it
came toward the nothingness where it must end—as an existence which is both anguished
and absurd.
Also see antihero
Wo/man:
Isolated,
Man: rational irrational
Existence: Existence:
meaningful absurd and
Universe: painful
intelligible Universe: alien
Society: ordered Society: chaotic
Values: Dignity, and oppressive
heroism No truth,
meaning,
purpose
Samuel Beckett: Theatre of the
Absurd
• “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful.”
• Like most works in this mode, the play is absurd in the double sense that it is
grotesquely comic and also irrational and nonconsequential; it is a parody not only of
the traditional assumptions of Western culture, but of the conventions and generic
forms of traditional drama, and even of its own inescapable participation in the
dramatic medium.
• But typically Beckett’s characters carry on, even if in a life without purpose, trying to
make sense of the senseless and to communicate the uncommunicable.
Anti-hero
• The chief person in a modern novel or play whose character is widely
discrepant from that of the traditional protagonist, or hero, of a
serious literary work. Instead of manifesting largeness, dignity, power,
or heroism, the antihero is petty, ignominious, passive, clownish, or
dishonest.
Antinovel
• The antinovel—that is, a work which is deliberately constructed in a
negative fashion, relying for its effects on:
the deletion of standard elements, on violating traditional norms
on playing against the expectations established in the reader by the
novelistic methods and conventions of the past.
• “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett exemplifies the characteristics of the
Theatre of the Absurd:
[Link] Meaninglessness:
1. The play revolves around Vladimir and Estragon waiting for someone named Godot,
whose identity remains elusive.
2. Their existence lacks purpose; they pass the time with trivial activities.
[Link]-Traditional Structure:
1. No clear plot progression; the play repeats itself.
2. The two acts mirror each other, emphasizing monotony and futility.
[Link] Language:
1. Repetitive, circular dialogue.
2. Vladimir and Estragon struggle to communicate effectively.
[Link] Behavior:
1. They engage in activities like taking off and putting on their boots, but nothing
changes.
2. Godot never arrives, leaving their waiting futile.
