The Theatre of the Absurd荒诞戏剧的介绍ppt1

1、 Main Contents of This Lecture 1. Definition of Theatre of the Absurd 2. Historical it is above all a poetic form a well made play an absurdist play 5.Result :Final Message 6.DYNAMIC 5. It conveys a central atmosphere 6. STATIC a well made play an absurdist play 7. Politics, Religion, Implicit belie

2、f in the goodness called “the play nothing happens.” The detractors call this play “gibberish”, or prank played on audience, whereas the supporters describe it as an accurate parable on the human condition in which “the more things change, the more they are the same.” Jean Genet (1910 1986) was a pr

3、ominent and controversial French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but later took to writing. His major plays includeThe Balcony, The Blacks, The Maids and The Screens. Among them, the important is The Maids which be

4、gins to explore the complex problems of identity that were soon to preoccupy other avant-garde dramatists such as Samuel Beckett and Eugne Ionesco. With this play Genet was established as an outstanding figure in the Theatre of the Absurd. Harold Pinter (1930- 2008), English playwright, achieved int

5、ernational renown as one of the most complex and challenging post-World War II dramatists. His plays are noted for their use of understatement, small talk, reticenceand even silenceto convey the substance of a characters thought, which often lies several layers beneath, and contradicts, his speech.

6、In 2005 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. The most important play written by him are as follows: The Room 房间(1957) The Birthday Party 生日晚会(1958) The Caretaker 看管人(1960) The Homecoming 归家(1965) Old Times 昔日(1971) And so on Pinters plays are ambivalent in their plots, presentation of characters,

7、and endings, but they are works of undeniable power and originality. They typically begin with a pair of characters whose stereotyped relations and role-playing are disrupted by the entrance of a stranger; the audience sees the psychic stability of the couple break down as their fears, jealousies, h

8、atreds, sexual preoccupations, and loneliness emerge from beneath a screen of bizarre yet commonplace conversation. Edward Albee ( born March 12, 1928) is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story (1958), The Sandbox (1959), Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), and so on. His work

9、s are considered well-crafted, often unsympathetic examinations of the modern condition. His early works reflect a mastery and Americanization of the Theatre of the Absurd that found its peak in works by European playwrights such as Samuel Beckett, Eugne Ionesco, and Jean Genet. . . Theatre of the A

10、bsurd in China The Theatre of the Absurd had exerted strong influence upon China soon after its emergence in France in the middle of the 20th century. One of the most staunch and fruitful practitioners is Gao Xingjian, who, deeply influenced by Samuel Beckett, created his four major plays, Warning S

11、ignal绝对信号 The Bus-Stop 车站 Wild Man 野人 The Otherness彼岸 Running through the four plays is an overriding theme of escapeescape from the destructive mentality of the majority, from the polluted city life, and from the consciousness of guilt. The representative play of Gaos is His The Bus-Stop, which tak

12、es place on a Saturday afternoon, somewhere on the outskirts of a big city. Eight passengers are waiting impatiently at a solitary bus-stop for a ride downtown, but none of the buses stops. Shocked by the absurd phenomenon, the characters want to get out of the bewildering situation. However, none o

13、f them is able to make the first move: what if a bus comes the minute they walk away from the bus-stop? Should they march on toward the city or go back to where they came from? More annoyingly, they cannot reach an unanimous decision, since they would feel safe to follow the majority. Before they ca

14、n figure out what has gone wrong, ten years have actually ticked away. The moment they finally decide to split up, a rain shower begins. The message, perhaps, rests on: One who makes an effort is expected to approach his destination, whereas those who would waste their time on meaningless waiting an

15、d intriguing if they merely rely on the outside forces. Another influential absurdist play is Pan Jinlian written by Wei Minglun. The theme of this play is to “attract the healers attention.” Apart from these two plays, no other important absurdist plays appeared in China. Anyway, Id like to say tha

16、t, in China, there is, more or less, appropriate soil for the absurdist plays to survive and develop, for it is perhaps more incisive to expose and criticize the social evil phenomenon. On the other hand, China allows the absurdist plays to develop only because she desires to wipe out absurdity. . Summary 1. Motifs they cannot express the meaning of human existence. 3. Common Plot