Major Concerns Of Selected Absurd Dramas

MAJOR CONCERNS OF SELECTED ABSURD DRAMAS

Absurdism could be said to be both a literary trend and a philosophy. Absurdity is a key word in Beckett's plays as well as in the Theatre of Absurd. In 1883 Friedrich Nietzsche published his masterpiece The Spoke Zarathustra in which the revolutionary statement appeared that God is dead. Earlier people have a deep faith in God. But after the publication of Nietzsche's work people started losing their faith in God and on certainties. World War I and II destructed the world and brought forth the uncertain world. Where anything can happen people started taking a doubt whether God exists or not. Apart from its earliest antecedents, absurdism first surfaced in France in the beginning at the twentieth century.

The Theme of Boredom in Selected Modern Dramas

The Element of the ‘Absurd’ in Rajiv Joseph’s Post-9/11 Plays

What is a suitable genre to describe the post-9/11 era mired in wars, violence, and unspeakable horror? What kind of literary expressions and techniques are appropriate to give voice to the prevalence of global anguish in the post-9/11 scenario? Is the Theatre of the Absurd a viable option for the expression of the incongruity of the unspeakable horror unleashed after 9/11? Is the term ‘absurd’ applicable to this era? If yes, in what terms is this applicable? This book tries to find answers to these questions and many more. It reflects on the epistemological shifts in the avant-garde tradition of the Theatre of the Absurd, its ongoing critical currency in contemporary history, and its changing contours in the post-9/11 plays of Rajiv Joseph, an emerging American dramatist. It establishes the continued relevance of the Theatre of the Absurd at the current juncture of human history.