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Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 29: Absurd Drama

Unit 29: Absurd Drama Notes

CONTENTS

Objectives
Introduction
29.1 Absurd Theatre
29.2 Origin
29.3 Elizabethan—Tragicomedy
29.4 Formal Experimentation
29.5 Relationship with Existentialism
29.6 History
29.7 Theatrical Features
29.8 Characters
29.9 Language
29.10 Plot
29.11 Summary
29.12 Keywords
29.13 Review Questions
29.14 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
Define absurd theatre.
Describe relationship with existentialism.
Explain history of the Absurd.
Define theatrical features.
Describe characters of the absurd.
Explain plot of the absurd.

Introduction
The notion of the Absurd contains the idea that there is no meaning to be found in the world
beyond what meaning we give to it. This meaninglessness also encompasses the amorality or
“unfairness” of the world. This contrasts with “karmic” ways of thinking in which “bad things
don’t happen to good people”; to the world, metaphorically speaking, there is no such thing as
a good person or a bad thing; what happens, and it may just as well happen to a “good” person
as to a “bad” person.
Because of the world’s absurdity, at any point in time, anything can happen to anyone, and a
tragic event could plummet someone into direct confrontation with the Absurd. The notion of
the absurd has been prominent in literature throughout history. Soren Kierkegaard, Franz Kafka,
Fyodor Dostoyevsky and many of the literary works of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus
contain descriptions of people who encounter the absurdity of the world. Albert Camus studied
the issue of “the absurd” in his essay The Myth of Sisyphus.

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