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International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848, p- ISSN: 2348-795X Volume 2, Issue 05, May 2015 Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org

The of Absurd: Blending the Existential and Nihilistic Concerns Prof Manminder Singh Anand Asstt. Prof. in English, Punjabi University Neighbourhood Campus, Jaitu, 151506 Pb. India. Mob: 919876807966 ABSTRACT which has evolved from their work. Their The present paper attempts to analyze the work expressed the belief that human conceptual aspects of and has no meaning or purpose and , as also to figure out the unconscious therefore all communication breaks down. aspects in the contemporary era carried out Logical construction and argument gives way from to . An to irrational and illogical speech and to its attempt has been made to focus on the ultimate conclusion, silence.[2] uncanny aspects inseminal texts like A In the first (1961) edition, Esslin presented the Passage to India , Crime & Punishment , The four defining playwrights of the movement as Stranger , , and Samuel Beckett, Arthur Adamov, Eugène also to compare and contrast their specific Ionesco, and , and in subsequent preferences. The paper, thus, presents an editions he added a fifth playwright, Harold overview of Aburdism whose hallmark is total Pinter–although each of these writers has rejection of all rationality in plot , character , unique preoccupations and characteristics that dialogue & projection the vision of a world in go beyond the term "absurd."[3][4] The which common man is out of harmony with the practitioners convey their sense of universe. bewilderment , ,wander in the face of in-explicable universe. Theatre of Absurd Keywords: Existentialist ; lost ; nihilism relishes the un – expected and the logically ;theatre of absurd ; irrational ; aimless ; albert impossible. camus; EugeneIonesco The classic work of absurdist theatre is Samuel Beckett‘s ― Waiting for Godot‖( 1752) INTRODUCTION , which receives some of the conventions of ― Absurd‖ is a term coined by the Hungarian clowning and farce to represent the born critic Martin Esslinwho exploited the impossibility of purposeful actions and phrase “ Theatre of Absurd” in 1961. paralysis of human aspiration . Theatre of Absurd is etymologically derived ― Nothing happens, Nobody comes , Nobody from the existentialist philosopher Albert goes, its awful !‖ Camus assessment in his essay ― The Myth of ― Krapps Last Tape‖ also belongs to the same Sisyphus‖ in 1942[1].It laid emphasis on the genre . Harold Pinters ― The Care-Taker‖ and modern sense of purposelessness in which ―The Birthday Party‖ are much celebrated aman finds himself in a situation of ― No examples of this genre. Exit‖. in ― The outsider‖ unmasks the myth of nothingness : The Theatre of the ― Man is not a rational creature living in an Absurd a designation for particular plays of intelligible world ,but an isolated being absurdist written by a number of moving from nothingness to nothingness , and primarily European playwrights in the late anguished and absurd existence.‖ 1950s, as well as one for the style of theatre

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International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848, p- ISSN: 2348-795X Volume 2, Issue 05, May 2015 Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org

Eugene Ionescounleashed the trait of "the existential attitude", or a sense of transitoriness in his― ‖ ― disorientation and confusion in the face of an ‖ , ―Amedie‖. These are the most apparently meaningless or absurd world.[8] towering plays whichfall under the category of Many existentialists have also regarded ― Theatre of Absurd‖. traditional systematic or academic Some revolutionary instances are notices from , in both style and content, as too the and stories of Franz Kafka , in abstract and remote from concrete human which the characters face alarmingly experience.[9] incomprehensive predicament ― Fate‖. Existentialism was the outcome of the world It is in relation to the concept of the wars and the mass destruction which led to devastating awareness of meaninglessness that nostalgia & nihilism. Albert Camus claimed that Nietzsche , Sartre ,Heidegger , Albert "there is only one truly serious Camus can be clubbed as rigid nihilists . philosophical problem, and that is suicide" They postulated the fact that truth is in his . errorenous , thus there is no truth . is Esslin cites William Shakespeare as an belittled and is reduced to a mere creation of influence on this aspect of the "Absurd the human mind. ."[5] Shakespeare's influence is Nietzsche ushered : “ God is dead , Man is acknowledged directly in the titles of alone in a godless universe”. Ionesco's Macbett and Stoppard's Rosencrantz Later Sartre corroborated to the nihilistc and Guildenstern Are Dead. approach :“ God , when he does not know what to do with us , kills us”. Theatre of Absurd is closely clubbed with Albert Camus Psychological Movements Facticity is a concept defined by Sartre in “Existentialism”which is derived from the Being and Nothingness as that "in-itself" of latin word “ Existere” which connotes ― which humans are in the mode of not being. Human Existence”. Existentialism is a According to various Existentialists, man is concerned with finding self and portrayed as he is thrown into this world as a the through free will, choice, diseased animal .Man exists among and and personal responsibility. Existentialism against other men into a brutal adventure embraces diverse doctrines but centers on without any purposeness. Existentialism and analysis of individual existence in an the theatre of absurd portrays the bleaky side unfathomable universe and the plight of the of humanity and also lays stress on human individual who must assume ultimate finitude , misery and despair of the human life responsibility for acts of free will without any from cradle to grave . Christian existentialists certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or likes Kierkegaard, Unamuno, Dostovsky good or bad. believed that “ in God , Man may find Existentialism is a term applied to the work freedom from tension”. of certain late 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal The Hallmark of Theatre of Absurd is its total differences,[6] shared the belief that rejection of all rationality in plot , character , philosophical thinking begins with the human dialogue & projection the vision of a world in subject—not merely the thinking subject, but which common man is out of harmony with the acting, feeling, living human individual.[7] the universe . The absurd drama begins and In existentialism, the individual's starting ends arbitrarily . Its movement is rather point is characterized by what has been called circular as it ends where it starts . The

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International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848, p- ISSN: 2348-795X Volume 2, Issue 05, May 2015 Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org dialogues are pointless , discursive , banal, day be terminated by an equally meaningless often degenerating into a meaningless babble. death. The language in absurd; is often dislocated , full of clichés ,puns , repetitions According to Irving Wardle , The features of and non – sequences. For example, in the Absurd Play are : Ionesco’s “The Bald Soprano”(1950), the 1. A static situation does not progress but only protagonist sits and walks repeating the expands. obvious until it sounds like non – sense. But 2. Lack of any clear division of fantasy or fact. there is an underlying message of 3. A fluid environment which projects mental metaphysical distress. conditions in the form of visual metaphors . 4.An obsession with defeat , despair , fear and The most eminent exponent of this literary death. genre “ Eugene Ionesco” has unveiled the absurdist everyman as :“ Cut off from his The World War Second was the catalyst that religious , metaphysical and transcendental finally brought the Theatre of Absurd to life . roots which are lost , all his actions become During this period the prophet of the absurd senseless ,absurd,uselss”. 's Antonin Artaud rejected realism in the Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is an theatre ,calling for a return to myth and magic absurdisttragicomedy first staged at the and to the exposure of the deepest conflicts Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1966.[10] The within the human mind. play expands upon the exploits of two minor CONCLUSION characters from Shakespeare's ‘Hamlet’. Thus, to sum up, The Theatre Of Absurd Comparisons have also been drawn to Samuel can be dubbed as a man‘s reaction to a world Beckett's ‗Waiting For Godot’, for the apparently without meaning or man as a presence of two central characters who appear puppet controlled or menaced by invisible almost as two halves of a single character. outside forces. Metaphorically speaking , this The Absurdist playwrights believe that our contrasts with "karmic" ways of thinking in existence is absurd because we are born which one wonders that "bad things don't without asking to be born , we die without happen to good people". Dr.Jan Culik seeking death , we live between birth and reiterates :― Absurd theatre can be seen as an death trapped within out body and , attempt to restore the importance of myth and unable to conceive of a time which we were ritual to our age , by making man aware of the not or a time in which we will not be ,for ultimate of his condition,by instilling nothingness is very much like the concept of in him again the lost sense of cosmic wonder infinity. The more we strive of perfection, & pre – medieval anguish . The Absurd definition & permanent distinctions , the more Theatre hopes to achieve this by shocking man absurd we are . Man is at the mercy of out of an existence that has become brutal , oppressive and arbitrary forces and institutions mechanical and complacent. It is felt that there . His Life is stupid , his efforts are aimless and is a mystical experience in confronting the rootless .Man is stranded and blind , a bare limits of .‖ item of existence . He is not a man of action who conquers his environments , but he is a REFERENCES patient of an inscrutable agent . Laws written [1.] Martin Esslin, The Theatre of the and unwritten have made him an outlaw. Life Absurd (Garden City, NY: is an unwanted gift forced upon man for no Doubleday, 1961). reason that he can understand which will one

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International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848, p- ISSN: 2348-795X Volume 2, Issue 05, May 2015 Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org

[2.] The Hutchinson Encyclopedia, Millennium Edition, Helicon 1999 [5] Ernst Breisach, Introduction to Modern Existentialism, New York [3.] Martin Esslin, The Theatre of the (1962), p. 5. Absurd (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1961) [6] Walter Kaufmann, Existentialism: From Dostoyevesky to Sartre, New [4.] Martin Esslin, The Theatre of the York (1956) p. 12. Absurd, 3rd ed. (New York: Vintage [Knopf], 2004).Esslin, pg. 321-323 [7] Michael H. Hutchins (14 August John Macquarrie, Existentialism, New 2006). "A Tom Stoppard York (1972), pp. 14–15.Robert C. Bibliography: Chronology". The Solomon, Existentialism (McGraw- Stephen Sondheim Reference Guide. Hill, 1974, pp. 1–2). Retrieved 2008-06-23.

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