The Theatre of the Absurd: Origins, Characteristics, and Key Authors

The Theatre of the Absurd

The Theatre of the Absurd was born in the 1950s. It sought to witness the disenchantment of the writers of the time against society and a world that did not have much to offer, allowing the theater to express itself through art. It demonstrated the problems of communication, loneliness, and despair affecting men and women in this nonsensical era. It employs rupturist schemes, breaking pre-established norms. It is a non-selective, mass theater, where approaches lead to different understandings.

The term Theatre of the Absurd was coined by the English critic, Martin Esslin. He used this term for all playwrights of the 1950s characterized by establishing a break with traditional theater. Ionesco, however, was instrumental in criticizing and identifying this new, previously unrecognized form. The origin of the Theatre of the Absurd is the reaction to the breakdown caused by World War II, suggesting an attempt to capture the general feeling of the era's inherent absurdity.

Key Authors and Works

• Samuel Beckett: Happy Days
• Eugene Ionesco: La Cantante Calva (The Bald Soprano)
• Arthur Adamov: Parody
• Jean Genet: The Balcony
• Harold Pinter: The Lover
• Antonin Artaud: Theatre and Its Double

Characteristics of Absurdist Theater

• The focus is not on telling a story, but on exposing a situation.
• Strong existentialist traits.
• Repetitive dialogues that do not flow smoothly.
• Seemingly meaningless patterns.
• Reality is transmitted through symbols.
• An underlying attitude lurks through humor and myth.
• The author is very demanding in his work.
• Disjointed action sequence.
• Illogical and nonsensical situations.
• Situations that lead nowhere.

The Literary Essay

Definition of the Essay

The Essay is a paper that interprets a particular topic freely. It is a literary genre in which poetic language and careful style are used by authors. It involves critical digressions in which the author expresses thoughts about a specific topic. It is considered science without explicit proof.

Key Features of the Essay

• Free subject matter.
• Simple, natural, and friendly style.
• Subjective, expressing mixed personal views.
• Includes elements such as quotations, anecdotes, or memories.
• No pre-established order or variable.
• Variable length.
• Aimed at a broad audience.
• Freedom of construction.

Structure of the Essay

The essay typically follows a three-part structure:

• Introduction: Expresses the theme and objective of the essay, on which the author will develop their own point of view.
• Development: Contains the exposure and analysis of issues raised. Own ideas arise and are sustained with information extracted from other sources or books. It maintains what has already been proven and deepened; resources such as description, narration, and quotes (which should be included in quotation marks) are used to defend the thesis.
• Conclusion: The author expresses their final ideas on the subject. They are allowed to give suggestions for a solution, closing the ideas that were worked on during the development and proposing lines of analysis for subsequent writings.