Lecture Drama II - Modern drama: Lecture 19 - Dr Irum Zulfiqar - Trường Đại học Công nghiệp Thực phẩm Tp. Hồ Chí Minh

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DRAMA II

MODERN DRAMA

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SYNOPSIS

An Introduction to 

1. 

Philosophical Background of Waiting for 

Godot

 Theatre of Absurd
 Existentialism

 The Paradox of Consciousness

2. 

Becket: Critical Analysis (Analytical Mapping)

 Characters

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The Theatre of Absurd and

<b>Samuel Beckett (1906­1989)</b>

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Beckett is one of the most widely discussed and highly prized of 
twentieth  century  authors,  inspiring  a  critical  industry  to  rival 
that which has sprung up around James Joyce. 

Samuel Beckett depicted
on an Irish

commemorative coin
celebrating the 100th
Anniversary of his birth.

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 Of  all  the  English­language  modernists,  Beckett's  work 

represents  the  most  sustained  attack  on  the  _realist

tradition. 

 He, more than anyone else, opened up the possibility of 

drama and fiction that _{dispense with conventional plot}

and the unities of place and time in order to focus on 
essential components of the _{human condition.}

 Writers like Václav Havel, John Banville, Aidan Higgins 

and Harold Pinter have publicly stated their indebtedness 
to  Beckett's  example,  but  he  has  had  a  much  wider 
influence on _{experimental writing}since the 1950s, from 
the Beat  generation to the  happenings  of  the 1960s  and 
beyond. 

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Philosophical Background

of

<i>Waiting for Godot</i>

1.

Effects of World War II (62

million people

_killed

[37.5

million in WWI];

2.

12 million in

concentration 

camps

;

3.

Atomic bomb and the promise of

annihilation)

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(No Exit by Sartre)
absurd content but
rational form or
presentation

(No Exit by Sartre)
absurd content but
rational form or
presentation

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

The term 

"Theatre of the Absurd"

 was coined by Martin 

Esslin  in  a  book  of  the  same  name;  Beckett  and 

<i>Godot</i>

 

were centerpieces of the book. 



Esslin claimed these plays were the fulfillment of Albert 

Camus's  concept  of  "the  absurd";  this  is  one  reason 

Beckett is often falsely labeled as an existentialist. 

The Theatre of the Abs urd and Samuel Beckett

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

Though  many  of  the  themes  are  similar, 

Beckett had little affinity for existentialism as 

a whole.



Broadly  speaking,  the  plays  deal  with 

the 

subject  of

 

despair 

and 

the  will  to  survive

 in 

spite  of  that  despair,  in  the  face  of  an 

uncomprehending 

and, 

indeed, 

incomprehensible world. 

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 The words of Nell—one of the two characters in <i>Endgame</i> 

who are trapped in ashbins, from which they occasionally 

peek their heads to speak—can best summarize the themes of 
the plays of Beckett's middle period

:

<i>Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you </i>

<i>that. ... Yes, yes, it's the most comical thing in the </i>

<i>world. And we laugh, we laugh, with a will, in the </i>

<i>beginning. But it's always the same thing. Yes, </i>

<i>it's like the funny story we have heard too often, </i>

<i>we still find it funny, but we don't laugh any </i>

<i>more.</i>

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