the literature of the absurd: writing against death

After World War 1, an interesting development appeared in the Western literature, especially in the field of drama, which came to be known as the Theatre of the Absurd. One of the main characteristics of this type of theatre is the rejection of the elementary rules of language and logics as a manifestation of man’s inability to communicate with his fellow beings. In an attempt to confront man with the ultimate realities of his existence, The Theatre of the Absurd presents the image of a meaningless tragic world, it expresses the anxiety and tragic condition of the man who realises the purposeless nature of his own life in an overmechanized, hyper organized society in which man’s basic condition is one of continuous alienation. Playwrights like Samuel Beckett, Eugen Ionescu, Adamov, Pinter, Albee, projected their characters against a background of death, in a mysterious world often looked upon as a labyrinth or as a jungle. In their work, human beings are seen as doomed through their very human condition of suffering and even dying. Thus, death, which is actually a tragic event, is present in the very act of living.