Absurdism Case
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literature:
The term is derived from the Latin absurdus, is formed from ab and surdus, meaning “deaf” and “stupid. What does it really mean by absurd? According to oxford dictionary it means unreasonable, illogical and inappropriate.
Absurd literature reflects the chaos, in the sense that it questions a persons daily existence. Mainly, in absurd literature language is the hallmark. That is, distrust of language , broken communication. Words fail to express the essence of human experience as we see mostly in camus, beckett and pinter works which will see later.
The absurd in this sense refers not to the ridiculous, but to being out of harmony and in many ways absurd literature subverts logic. One important feature of absurd is it belongs to the avant-garde style in terms of its structure, plot and structure highly reflecting upon mans isolation in the universe which has no meaning or value.
NOW HOW THE ABSURD LITERATURE START. HITORICALLY:
The absurd literature followed by the theatre of absurd comes about as a reaction to world war 2. World War II acts as a catalyst that finally gives rise to absurdity in art and literature which ultimately reflects ones life.
Basically absurd literature either in form of drama or prose fiction tries to capture the human condition in postwar. As a matter of fact both The First World War and the second World War lead the world towards a chaotic condition whereby people start questiong their purpose and existence in the world as it destroyed all the basic assumptions people had about life. People start finding life meaningless along with loss of faith because of the holocaust brought by the wars and the threat of nuclear annihilation. It ultimately leads to loss of faith
Now I will elaborate on the themes of absurd literature:
the themes of absurd plays are communication difficulties, exhaustion of language, existential questions etc.
Investigation of the relativity of truth
Futility, meaninglessness, purposelessness, hopelessness
Humanitys vain struggle against fate
Inadequacy of communication
Instability of characters/ lack of definite characterization
Lack of definite plot structure
World bent on destruction
The absurdity of attempting to control ones fate
One of the most important figures to be categorized as both Absurdist and Postmodern is Samuel Beckett. The work of Samuel Beckett is often seen as marking the shift from modernism to postmodernism in literature. Even albert camuss essay myth of Sisyphus defines the human condition as basically meaningless and absurd. Man is beliwered , troubled
The theater of absurd rises in the 1940s and early 1950s, is considered as one of the important movement in the history of the dramatic literature for its non conventional form and content. The idea of absurdity was first raised by camus and Sartre, use the word absurd