Theatre of the Absurd[edit]

The term Theatre of the Absurd is applied to plays written by primarily European playwrights, that
express the belief that human existence has no meaning or purpose and therefore all communication
breaks down. Logical construction and argument gives way to irrational and illogical speech and to its
ultimate conclusion, silence.[23] While there are significant precursors, including Alfred Jarry (1873–
1907), the Theatre of the Absurd is generally seen as beginning in the 1950s with the plays of Samuel
Beckett.
Critic Martin Esslin coined the term in his 1960 essay, "Theatre of the Absurd." He related these plays
based on a broad theme of the Absurd, similar to the way Albert Camus uses the term in his 1942 essay,
"The Myth of Sisyphus".[24] The Absurd in these plays takes the form of man’s reaction to a world
apparently without meaning, and/or man as a puppet controlled or menaced by invisible outside forces.
Though the term is applied to a wide range of plays, some characteristics coincide in many of the plays:
broad comedy, often similar to Vaudeville, mixed with horrific or tragic images; characters caught in
hopeless situations forced to do repetitive or meaningless actions; dialogue full of clichés, wordplay, and
nonsense; plots that are cyclical or absurdly expansive; either a parody or dismissal of realism and the
concept of the "well-made play".
Playwrights commonly associated with the Theatre of the Absurd include Samuel Beckett (1906–
1989), Eugène Ionesco (1909–1994), Jean Genet (1910–1986), Harold Pinter (1930–2008), Tom
Stoppard (b. 1937),Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990), Alejandro Jodorowsky (b. 1929), Fernando
Arrabal (b. 1932), Václav Havel (1936–2011) and Edward Albee (b. 1928).

What are characteristics of Modernist literature, fiction in particular?

Modernist literature was a predominantly English genre of fiction writing, popular from roughly the
1910s into the 1960s. Modernist literature came into its own due to increasing industrialization and
globalization. New technology and the horrifying events of both World Wars (but specifically World War
I) made many people question the future of humanity: What was becoming of the world?

Writers reacted to this question by turning toward Modernist sentiments. Gone was the Romantic period
that focused on nature and being. Modernist fiction spoke of the inner self and consciousness. Instead of
progress, the Modernist writer saw a decline of civilization. Instead of new technology, the Modernist
writer saw cold machinery and increased capitalism, which alienated the individual and led to loneliness.
(Sounds like the same arguments you hear about the Internet age, doesn't it?)

To achieve the emotions described above, most Modernist fiction was cast in first person. Whereas
earlier, most literature had a clear beginning, middle, and end (or introduction, conflict, and resolution),
the Modernist story was often more of a stream of consciousness. Irony, satire, and comparisons were
often employed to point out society's ills. For the first-time Modernist reader, this can all add up to feel
like the story is going nowhere.

A short list of some of famous Modernist writers includes Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, Joseph Conrad,
T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, E.E. Cummings, Sylvia Plath, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William
Butler Yeats, Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, and Gertrude Stein.

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From the above list, two specific works that epitomize Modernist literature are Faulkner's As I Lay
Dying and Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.

Characteristics of Modernism (esp. in literature)

 self-consciousness and irony concerning literary and social conventions > admitted artifice in

representation.

 narration through fragmented, internalized, or multiple perspectives or viewpoints; e.g.

Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury (1929); Woolf''s To the Lighthouse (1927)

 non-linear time, or other distortions of time-conventions in Realistic fiction; e.g.,

Joyce's Ulysses (1922), Faulkner's Sound & Fury (1929)

 destabilization and fragmentation of reality > surprising and sometimes inconsistent metaphors

for interior states

 unification of fragmenting reality through internalized or interior perception, as in stream-of-

consciousness (< influence of Freud, theories of consciousness and unconscious)

 Classical or mythic forms refashioned or made new (<archetypal psychology of Jung;

advanced classical scholarship)

 Primitivism: ("Belief, thought, or behaviour of a primitive or instinctive nature; the advocating or

idealization of that which is simple, unsophisticated, or primitive"--OED); a.k.a. atavism

 Allusiveness: symbolic references to or self-conscious intertextuality with prior literary

monuments

 Realistic details > symbolic, suggestive, allegorical

 Heroic individualism of Romanticism > isolation, eccentricity

 The gothic may re-appear in broken or fleeting forms as the grotesque. (examples?)

Like Romanticism, Modernism mixes revolutionary and reactionary elements.

Reaction against formal limits of Realism and optimism of Victorian literature > experimental
forms, pessimism.

A LIST OF POSTMODERN CHARACTERISTICS.

Irony, playfulness, black humor

Postmodern authors were certainly not the first to use irony and humor in their writing, but for many
postmodern authors, these became the hallmarks of their style. Postmodern authors will often treat very
serious subjects—World War II, the Cold War, conspiracy theories—from a position of distance and
disconnect, and will choose to depict their histories ironically and humorously.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Xfze51E7TEoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=catch-
22&ei=HNsISpu3M5f2MIzRwYYE

Pastiche
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 Many postmodern authors combined, or “pasted” elements of previous genres and styles of literature to
create a new narrative voice, or to comment on the writing of their contemporaries. Thomas Pynchon, one
of the most important postmodern authors, uses elements from detective fiction, science fiction, and war
fiction, songs, pop culture references, and well-known, obscure, and fictional history.

http://booksoupbookstore.blogspot.com/2008/05/unfortunates-by-bs-johnson.html

Intertextuality

An important element of postmodernism is its acknowledgment of previous literary works. The

intertextuality of certain works of postmodern fiction, the dependence on literature that has been created
earlier, attempts to comment on the situation in which both literature and society found themselves in the 
second half of the 20th century: living, working, and creating on the backs of those that had come before.

http://books.google.com/books?
id=RC6JJmB_JEcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=rosencrantz+and+guildenstern+are+dead&ei=q9sISoqMM
YjYMOqLrNAD

Metafiction
Many postmodern authors feature metafiction in their writing, which, essentially, is writing about writing,
an attempt to make the reader aware of its ficitionality, and, sometimes, the presence of the author.
Authors sometimes use this technique to allow for flagrant shifts in narrative, impossible jumps in time,
or to maintain emotional distance as a narrator.

http://books.google.com/books?id=FM4y7N1kM9AC&printsec=frontcover&dq=slaughterhouse-
five&ei=JdwISu7zLZasM4n7jIsG

Historiographic metafiction
This term was created by Linda Hutcheon to refer to novels that fictionalize actual historical events and
characters: Thomas Pynchon’s Mason and Dixon, for example, features a scene in which George
Washington smokes pot.

http://www.amazon.com/General-Labyrinth-Gabriel-Garc%C3%ADa-M%C3%A1rquez/dp/0140148590

Temporal distortion
Temporal distortion is a literary technique that uses a nonlinear timeline; the author may jump forwards
or backwards in time, or there may be cultural and historical references that do not fit: Abraham Lincoln
uses a telephone in Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada. This technique is frequently used in literature, but it
has become even more common in films.

http://books.google.com/books?
id=4269Rt0vqTIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=flight+to+canada&lr=&num=50&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTY
PES&ei=s9wISsguk841mYeBow4

Paranoia
Many postmodern authors write under the assumption that modern society cannot be explained or
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 understood. From that point of view, any apparent connections or controlling influences on the chaos of
society would be very frightening, and this lends a sense of paranoia to many postmodern works.

http://books.google.com/books?
id=vp2Sv9KO1VUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=crying+of+lot+49&lr=&num=50&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALL
TYPES&ei=BN0ISsjXMIvKNdv-tYUC

Maximalism
Villified by its critics for being in turns disorganized, sprawling, overly long, and emotionally
disconnected, maximalism exists in the tradition of long works like The Odyssey. Authors that use this
technique will sometimes defend their work as being as long as it needs to be, depending on the subject
material that is covered.

http://books.google.com/books?
id=xbeUMn6pi2UC&printsec=frontcover&dq=howl&lr=&num=50&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ei=I
N0IStmwNYvKNdv-tYUC

Faction
Faction is very similar to historiographic metafiction, in that its subject material is based on actual events,
but writers of faction tend to blur the line between fact and fiction to the degree that it is almost
impossible to know the difference between the two, as opposed to metafiction, which often draws
attention to the fact that it is not true.

http://books.google.com/books?
id=mYC3yRvvXxMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=in+cold+blood&lr=&num=50&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLT
YPES&ei=et0ISonVK4a6NarmnKcB

Magical realism
Arguably the most important postmodern technique, magical realism is the introduction of fantastic or
impossible elements into a narrative that is otherwise normal. Magical realist novels may include dreams
taking place during normal life, the return of previously deceased characters, extremely complicated
plots, wild shifts in time, and myths and fairy tales becoming part of the narrative. Many critics argue that
magical realism has its roots in the work of Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel García Márquez, two South
American writers, and some have classified it as a Latin American style.

http://books.google.com/books?
id=Jumamrx5UgoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=labyrinths&lr=&num=50&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES
&ei=i90ISsCNIoOgNfGsqOwD

http://books.google.com/books?
id=W6oIvSR4MQkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=100+years+of+solitude&lr=&num=50&as_brr=3&as_pt
=ALLTYPES&ei=p90ISvfjPI3MM7a1uO0B

Participation
Many postmodern authors, as a response to modernism, which frequently set its authors apart from their

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 readers, attempt to involve the reader as much as possible over the course of a novel. This can take the
form of asking the reader questions, including unwritten narratives that must be constructed by the reader,
or allowing the reader to make decisions regarding the course of the narrative.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choose_Your_Own_Adventure

Postmodern Literature Defined

Postmodern literature is a form of literature which is marked, both stylistically and ideologically, by a
reliance on such literary conventions as fragmentation, paradox, unreliable narrators, often unrealistic and
downright impossible plots, games, parody, paranoia, dark humor and authorial self-
reference.Postmodern authors tend to reject outright meanings in their novels, stories and poems, and,
instead, highlight and celebrate the possibility of multiple meanings, or a complete lack of meaning,
within a single literary work.
Postmodern literature also often rejects the boundaries between 'high' and 'low' forms of art and literature,
as well as the distinctions between different genres and forms of writing and storytelling. Here are some
examples of stylistic techniques that are often used in postmodern literature:

 Pastiche: The taking of various ideas from previous writings and literary styles and pasting them
together to make new styles.
 Intertextuality: The acknowledgment of previous literary works within another literary work.
 Metafiction: The act of writing about writing or making readers aware of the fictional nature of
the very fiction they're reading.
 Temporal Distortion: The use of non-linear timelines and narrative techniques in a story.
 Minimalism: The use of characters and events which are decidedly common and non-exceptional
characters.
 Maximalism: Disorganized, lengthy, highly detailed writing.
 Magical Realism: The introduction of impossible or unrealistic events into a narrative that is
otherwise realistic.
 Faction: The mixing of actual historical events with fictional events without clearly defining what
is factual and what is fictional.
 Reader Involvement: Often through direct address to the reader and the open acknowledgment of
the fictional nature of the events being described.

Many critics and scholars find it best to define postmodern literature against the popular literary style that
came before it: modernism. In many ways, postmodern literary styles and ideas serve to dispute, reverse,
mock and reject the principles of modernist literature.
For example, instead of following the standard modernist literary quest for meaning in a chaotic world,
postmodern literature tends to eschew, often playfully, the very possibility of meaning. The postmodern
novel, story or poem is often presented as a parody of the modernist literary quest for meaning. Thomas
Pynchon's postmodern novel The Crying of Lot 49 is a perfect example of this. In this novel, the
protagonist's quest for knowledge and understanding results ultimately in confusion and the lack of any
sort of clear understanding of the events that transpired.
neo-realism
QUICK REFERENCE
Any revival of realism in fiction, especially in novels and stories describing the lives of the poor in a
contemporary setting. The term is associated especially with the dominant trend of Italian fiction in the
1940s and 1950s, led by Cesare Pavese, Alberto Moravia, and Elio Vittorini, and with the parallel
movement in Italian cinema of the same period, led by Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio de Sica. See
also verismo.
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 REALISM CHARACTERISTICS

Little Words, Big Ideas

Detail
Detail is that special something, that je ne sais quoi that sets Realism apart from other literary schools.
Detail is the stuff that Realist writers use to weave their magic with: these writers imm...

Transparent Language
One big innovation of Realist literature was the use of simple, transparent language. No Realist novel is
going to begin with some fancy-shmancy phrase like, "Behold, thy life and love are the true...

Omniscient Narrator
Realist writers really rocked the omniscient narrator. What's that, you ask?Omniscient narrators are sort
of like the superheroes of narrators, and that's because they know everything. They can jum...

Verisimilitude
Verisimilitude is a sexy word meaning truthiness. Realist literature is famous for the way it tries to create
a world that seems real or true; Realist writers want us to believe that we're watching...

The Novel
You can't talk about Realism without talking about the novel. The novel is the one genre that is most
closely associated with the rise of Realism as a movement: if we tick off on your fingers the m...

The Quotidian
You wake up. You pour your Cheerios into a bowl. You add milk. You eat and think about all the stuff
you have to do today: walk the dog, finish your English essay, grab a coffee with your friend. Y...

Character
Realist writers are really into describing, analyzing, and dramatizing personality. They delve deep into
their characters' psychologies and dig into their motivations, actions, and emotions. Realis...

Social Critique
Realist writers are all about critiquing the social and political conditions of the worlds that they write
about. Authors like Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, Honoré de Balzac, and Fyodor Dostoevsky...

6
Class
Class is a huge deal in Realist literature. Sometimes Realist writers will delve into the intricate etiquette
of the upper classes, and sometimes they'll focus on the trials and tribulations of the...

Rising Literacy
Around the time that Realism got going as a literary movement in the mid-19th century, more and more
people were reading. Education was no longer the special privilege of fancy aristocrats wearing...

Realism

Realism 1861- 1914 (American Realism 1865-1890): An artistic movement begun in 19th
century France. Artists and writers strove for detailed realistic and factual description. They tried
to represent events and social conditions as they actually are, without idealization.

This form of literature believes in fidelity to actuality in its representation. Realism is about
recreating life in literature. Realism arose as an opposing idea to Idealism and Nominalism.
Idealism is the approach to literature of writing about everything in its ideal from. Nominalism
believes that ideas are only names and have no practical application. Realism focused on the
truthful treatment of the common, average, everyday life. Realism focuses on the immediate, the
here and now, the specific actions and their verifiable consequences. Realism seeks a one-to-one
relationship between representation and the subject. This form is also known as mimesis. Realists
are concerned with the effect of the work on their reader and the reader's life, a pragmatic view.
Pragmatism requires the reading of a work to have some verifiable outcome for the reader that
will lead to a better life for the reader. This lends an ethical tendency to Realism while focusing on
common actions and minor catastrophes of middle class society.

Realism aims to interpret the actualities of any aspect of life, free from subjective prejudice,
idealism, or romantic color. It is in direct opposition to concerns of the unusual, the basis of
Romanticism. Stresses the real over the fantastic. Seeks to treat the commonplace truthfully and
used characters from everyday life. This emphasis was brought on by societal changes such as the
aftermath of the Civil War in the United States and the emergence of Darwin's Theory of
Evolution and its effect upon biblical interpretation.

Characteristics:

 Emphasis on psychological, optimistic tone, details, pragmatic, practical, slow-moving plot

 Rounded, dynamic characters who serve purpose in plot
 Empirically verifiable
 World as it is created in novel impinges upon characters. Characters dictate plot; ending usually
open.
 Plot=circumstance
 Time marches inevitably on; small things build up. Climax is not a crisis, but just one more
unimportant fact.
 Causality built into text (why something happens foreshadowed). Foreshadowing in everyday
events.
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 Realists--show us rather than tell us
 Representative people doing representative things
 Events make story plausible
 Insistence on experience of the commonplace
 Emphasis on morality, usually intrinsic, relativistic between people and society
 Scenic representation important
 Humans are in control of their own destiny and are superior to their circumstances