Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou Faculty of Arts and Languages Department of English A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for a Master’s Degree in English Option: Drama Arts Subject: The Eiron and the Alazon in Edward Albee’s the Zoo Story (1958), Le Roi Jones’s Dutchman (1964) and Adrienne Kennedy’s Funnyhouse of a Negro (1969) Presented by: - OULAGHA Zakia - TOUIL Elyes Panel of Examiners: -Dr.Siber Mouloud ,M.C.A., UMMTO, Chairman. -Dr. Gariti Mohamed, M.C.A., UMMTO, Supervisor. -Abdeli Fatima,M.A.A., UMMTO, Examiner. Academic Year: 2016-2017 Abstract This research paper has studied the elements underlying the absurdity of communication between the characters in Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story, Le Roi Jones’s Dutchman and Adrienne Kennedy’s Funnyhouse of a Negro. This issue has been addressed through three major phases. First, the focus has been placed upon the socio-economic and racial injustices in the American society during the 1950s and 1960s. Second, as a direct consequence of the socio-economic disparity, the alienation experienced by the plays’ central characters has been analyzed in the light existentialism. Third, the very absurdity of the characters’ interaction has been interpreted in terms of the characters’ ironic pursuit for communication. Such ironic interaction has therefore been tackled from a mythical perspective calling forth Northrop Frye’s theory of archetypes, particularly the mythos of satire and irony. Hence, it has been concluded that the characters’ failed communication is brought about by their ironic attack of their interlocutors’ fake personas. Dedications To my beloved parents, my brothers and sisters, my beloved family members, my best friends Sabrina and Souad, my friends and colleagues, and to you the reader. Zakia To my beloved parents, long they live, my sisters and brothers and all the family members, all my friends in the department of English in UMMTO, my close friends, everyone in my life, and to you reading this. Elyes Acknowledgements First and foremost, we incline to express our sincere gratitude to Mr. Gariti Mohamed for his wise guidance and for the suggestion of the subject under study. Deepest thanks go him for sparing his time and effort in enlightening us with worthy remarks. Our special thanks go to all the teachers of the department of English to whom the achievement of this dissertation is indebted. Last but not least, our warm thanks go to our beloved parents who have been source of encouragement and support during the realization of this work. Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... I Dedications ................................................................................................................................ II Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. III I. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 01 - Review of the Literature ............................................................................................... 02 - Issue and Working Hypothesis ..................................................................................... 05 - Methodological Outline ................................................................................................ 06 II. Methods and Materials ................................................................................................... 07 1. Methods: Northrop Frye’s Theory of Archetypal Criticism: The Mythos of Winter (Satire and Irony) and Jean Paul Sartre’s Being and Nothingness .............. 07 2. Materials ..................................................................................................................... 08 - A Summary of the Play: The Zoo Story ................................................................ 08 - A Summary of the Play: Dutchman ..................................................................... 09 - A Summary of the Play: Funnyhouse of a Negro ................................................. 09 III. Results and Discussion .................................................................................................... 14 Chapter 1: The Socio-economic Context of the 1950s and the 1960s and its Influence on the Writing of the Three Plays ............................................................... 17 Chapter 2: The Characters’ Existential Alienation and its Impact on their Communication ........................................................................................... 26 2.1. Existential Alienation of Jerry and Peter in The Zoo Story .................. 28 2.2. Existential Alienation of Clay in Dutchman ........................................ 30 2.3. Existential Alienation of the Negro Sarah in Funnyhouse of a Negro . 32 Chapter 3: The Archetypal Interpretation of the Characters’ Ironic Communication in the Three Plays .......................................................................................... 37 3.1. The Eiron and the Alazon in The Zoo Story, Dutchman and Funnyhouse of a Negro. ............................................................................................. 39 3.2.The Eirons’ Ironic Pursuit of Communication with the Alazons in The Zoo Story, Dutchman and Funnyhouse of a Negro ............................... 44 IV. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 54 V. Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 56 Introduction The aim of this study is to find out the mythical implications that underlie the ironic communication in three select American plays: The Zoo Story by Edward Albee, Dutchman by Le Roi Jones and Funnyhouse of a Negro by Adrienne Kennedy. The three plays were written at a time when life in America reached its peak in terms of absurdity and meaninglessness. The impact of the Second World War and the intensity of racial clashes made people lose faith in a unified universe and the result was meaninglessness and rootlessness in life. In addition to ironically reflecting the mind-set of American people, the three playwrights were greatly influenced by the Theater of the Absurd that emerged decades earlier in Europe and which freed the stage from the superficiality and conventions of the Nineteenth Century Theater. Accordingly, the language of literature became nothing more than nonsense: a salient decline of the old eloquence and the grand narrative. Martin Esslin, who coined the term ‘Theater of the Absurd’, argues that “this form of theater was an attempt to unite, in form and content, the sense of ‘metaphysical anguish’ at the absurdity of the human condition.”1 All plays that can be integrated in this form of theater are concerned with the futility and ruthlessness of the modern life; a life ruined by war, cruelty and where language is no longer a means of meaningful, effective communication, but just hollow talk. In such anti-theater plays, language becomes a means of mockery and senseless bantering between characters in a way that they do not want to communicate with each other meaningfully. Esslin contends that “It is in its attitude to language that the Theater of the Absurd is most revolutionary. It deliberately attempts to renew the language of drama and to expose the barrenness of conventional stage dialogue.”2 During the 1950s and 1960s, the Americans felt much more disillusioned not only because of the aftermaths of the World War but also due to stifling socio-economic issues. The disparity of social classes within the American society as well as the racial 1 discrimination, and oppression towards the African Americans deepened the feeling of alienation and the absurdity of the human contact. Thus, many White and Black American playwrights tended to experiment with absurd theatrical innovations so as to stress the staggering communication between the marginalized and the marginalizing, or rather between the oppressed and the oppressor. In this context, Edward Albee, Le Roi Jones and Adrienne Kennedy are some of the prominent absurd playwrights who emerged in the United States during the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s and whose very plays The Zoo Story, Dutchman and Funnyhouse of a Negro implicitly target the issue of communication breakdown between people who are united by neighborhood but separated by class and identity. It goes without saying that the discursive absurdity and irony in the plays under investigation lie in the characters’ failed attempts to establish a successful communication. The initiation and maintenance of contact is reached only through attacking the personal or social problems of the other characters. Eventually, derogative discourse predominantly overshadows the characters’ dialogues and speeches. Hence, we can argue here that in each of the three plays the characters resort to irony for the sake of keeping the flow of communication. The irony is clearly manifested in the way the characters struggle to maintain communication. Thus, the absurdity of their interaction can be interpreted mythically in regards to archetypal criticism: mythos of winter. This latter, advocated by Northrop Frye, provides the perfect