Description |
179 pages ; 22 cm |
Contents |
Introduction : reassessing the theatre of the absurd -- The parable of Estragon's struggle with the boot Samuel Beckett's in Waiting for Godot -- The Pinteresque Oedipal household : the interrogation scene(s) in The birthday party -- The parable of the white clown : the use of ritual in Jean Genet's The blacks : a clown show -- Berenger, the Sisyphean hero -- Conclusion : theorizing a "female absurd" in Beth Henley's Crimes of the heart as a means of reassessing the theatre of the absurd |
Summary |
Fifty years after the publication of Martin Esslin's The Theatre of the Absurd, which suggests that "absurd" plays purport the meaninglessness of life, Michael Y. Bennett's Reassessing the Theatre of the Absurd is a timely reassessment of one of the most important theatre "movements" of the 20th century. Bennett argues that these "absurd" plays are, instead, ethical texts that suggest how life can be made meaningful. Analyzing the works of five major playwrights/writers of the 1950s (including three winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature), Bennett's work challenges fifty years of scholarship though his upbeat and hopeful readings |
Notes |
Formerly CIP. Uk |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
Notes |
Also available online via the World Wide Web, by subscription to EBL Ebook Library |
Subject |
Absurd (Philosophy) in literature.
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European drama -- History and criticism -- 20th century.
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European drama -- 20th century -- History and criticism.
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Theater of the absurd.
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LC no. |
2010041714 |
ISBN |
0230113389 (alk. paper) |
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9780230113381 (alk. paper) |
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