ABSURDISM

KELOMPOK 1

GHULAM MUHAMMAD ISHAQ

KHALID ASADUL QOWIY

AHMAD NIZAM AZMI

HAFIZ ANSHORI
 What is absurdism ?
-Absurdism means the internal conflict between human tendency to find the inherent value and the
meaning of life and his inability to find any.

-In other words, absurdism refers to humans struggle to find the region in his life anf his inability to find
it due to humanly limited constraints.

-Thus absurdism refers to something which is humanly ipossible rather than logically impossible. In this
sense, one whoo tries to find inherent values and meaning in life will ultimately fail because of
impossible certain.
It Is a philosophical school of thought which is based on the belief that the universe is irrational and
meaningless and that the search for order brings the individual into conflict with the universe.
Therefore, efforts of humanity to find inherent meaning will ultimately fail.
Absurdism furthermore explores the fundamental nature of

the Absurd and how individuals, once becoming conscious of

the Absurd, should respond to it. The absurdist philosopher

Albert Camus stated that individuals should embrace the

absurd condition of human existence while also defiantly

continuing to explore and search for meaning.

What the difference?

Existentialism
Nihilism
Absurdism
Existentialism is the belief that through a combination of awareness, free will, and personal
responsibility, one can construct their own meaning within a world that intrinsically has none of its
own.

Nihilism is the belief that not only is there no intrinsic meaning in the universe, but that it’s
pointless to try to construct our own as a substitute.

Absurdism is the belief that a search for meaning is inherently in conflict with the actual lack of
meaning, but that one should both accept this and simultaneously rebel against it by embracing
what life has to offer.
Theatre of Absurd

-It starts in the late 1950s by a number of

European playwrights such as: Samuel
beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Jean genet, etc.
their works concentrated mainly on the
theme of Existentialism and Absurdism.
Theatre of the Absurd, dramatic works of certain European and American dramatists of the 1950s
and early ’60s who agreed with the Existentialist philosopher Albert Camus’s assessment, in his
essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” (1942), that the human situation is essentially absurd, devoid of
purpose. The term is also loosely applied to those dramatists and the production of those works.
Though no formal Absurdist movement existed as such, dramatists as diverse as Samuel
Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Jean Genet, Arthur Adamov, Harold Pinter, and a few others shared a
pessimistic vision of humanity struggling vainly to find a purpose and to control its fate.
Humankind in this view is left feeling hopeless, bewildered, and anxious.
 Why Theatre of
Absurd come
to be?
• The atrocities and
catastrophes of the WW2, was
thought to be an influential
event that cause the movement
to come about. Additionally,
everyday life can be described
as an absurd and meaningless
during WW2.
The rejection and
decline of Religion
and religious
faith.
 PLOT
• The plot surrounds the idea of meaninglessness of life. And , furthermore, it questions
human’s existence alongside having a god.
• Absurdism lacks plot! That is why there are not really organized movements, plus
unexplained endings.
• It has puzzling dialogues with nonsense language that lacks conveying the message of
the characters,
Character
- Characters are mostly stereotypical and archetypical, or in some plays they
are flat like characters.
-Characters are in crisis and perplexing, because of the nature of the
incomprehensible universe they are in. The characters, therefore, are
complex.
Language and Dialogue
- Language in Absurd theatre is unreliable and has no value in
communication. Often illogical and clichéd.
-Absurdists believed that conventional language had failed human, and it was
insufficient.
-The dialogues are occupied with repetitions.
Did you Know?
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass was an Absurdism work of
literature!
THANK YOU