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Sartre, Beckett, Pinter, Albee and drama criticism PDF

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UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff NNeeww HHaammppsshhiirree UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff NNeeww HHaammppsshhiirree SScchhoollaarrss'' RReeppoossiittoorryy Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Spring 1996 TThhee TThheeaatteerr ooff tthhee AAbbssuurrdd iinn EEuurrooppee aanndd AAmmeerriiccaa:: SSaarrttrree,, BBeecckkeetttt,, PPiinntteerr,, AAllbbeeee aanndd ddrraammaa ccrriittiicciissmm Sheila O'Brien McGuckin University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation RReeccoommmmeennddeedd CCiittaattiioonn McGuckin, Sheila O'Brien, "The Theater of the Absurd in Europe and America: Sartre, Beckett, Pinter, Albee and drama criticism" (1996). Doctoral Dissertations. 1895. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/1895 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Aitoor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD IN EUROPE AND AMERICA: SARTRE, BECKETT, PINTER, ALBEE AND DRAMA CRITICISM BY SHEILA O'BRIEN MCGUCKIN BA, Nazareth College of Rochester, 1971 MA, State University of New York at Geneseo, 1974 DISSERTATION Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History May, 1996 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9627162 UMI Microform 9627162 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This dissertation has been examined and approved. Jtdc*. Dissertation Director, Robert M. Mennel Professor of History C -■ cJLx Charles E. Clark, Professor of History J. William Harris, Jr., Associate Professor of History Janet L. Polasky, Professor of History ________________________ David M. Richman, Associate Professor of Theater Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEDICATION To John iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express ray appreciation to all those who assisted me in the preparation of this work, including the Department of History of the University of New Hampshire for an award from the GTJNST-WILCOX FUND to support research, and to the Graduate School of the University of New Hampshire for the Dissertation Fellowship that assisted me in its completion. I also wish to thank my fellow graduate students in the Department of History for their interest in the topic and their many helpful comments. I am grateful to the members of my dissertation committee, Professor Charles E. Clark, Professor Janet L. Polasky, Professor J. William Harris, Jr., of the History Department and Professor David M. Richman, of the Theater Department, who read the final draft and offered careful scrutiny, perceptive comments and valuable suggestions. Most especially, I want to express my profound gratitude to Professor Robert M. Mennel, my dissertation director and mentor, for his confidence, his guidance, his unfailing enthusiasm for the project and his steady encouragement "to go on." I have been blessed with family and friends, all of whom have taken time from their busy lives to express their interest in the work, to share information and suggestions, and to offer warm and timely words of support. This work would have been impossible without the help of my friend Pat Couture, and the assistance in innumerable ways of my siblings, especially my sister and brother-in-law, Kate and Kevin Collins. I am especially grateful to my parents, Doratha and the late Neil O'Brien, who first taught me to dream and who have always been my special source of strength and inspiration in pursuing each dream. Finally, words fail to adequately convey the depth of my gratitude to my five children, Aisling, Roisin, Jarlath, Neisha and Annetta for their unending patience, good humor, enthusiasm, wisdom and comfort and to my husband, John, whose love has sustained me. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION............................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................... iv ABSTRACT.................................................................................................. vi CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION: THE MESSAGE OF THE ABSURD........................... 1 I. THE ROOTS OF THE ABSURD.............................................. 10 II. EXISTENTIALISM AND THE STAGE................................... 59 III. BEYOND SPEECH: SAMUEL BECKETT..................... 99 IV. A VERY POTENT QUESTION: HAROLD PINTER 148 V. WORDS ON A MIRROR: EDWARD ALBEE......................... 197 VI. ABSURDISM AND DRAMA CRITICISM............................... 255 BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................................... 293 v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD IN EUROPE AND AMERICA: SARTRE, BECKETT, PINTER, ALBEE AND DRAMA CRITICISM by Sheila O'Brien McGuckin University of New Hampshire, May, 1996 This study examines the significance of the post World War II Theater of the Absurd which explored new concepts of ontology and semiology and provided a vehicle for the dissemination of existentialist ideas. As a link between modernist and postmodernist drama, it also served as a catalyst for changes in drama criticism that anticipated some of the controversies of deconstructionism. The first part of this work places the Theater of the Absurd in historical context by tracing elements of absurdity from the theater of ancient Greece into the twentieth century. Modern absurdism emerged in the 1930's as part of the reaction to Realism. Combining aspects of Symbolism and Surrealism, the absurd was illustrated in the dramatic productions of Dada and the theories of Antonin Artaud. The connection between this theatrical experimentalism and existential philosophy influenced the French theater of the 1940's. Samuel Beckett's groundbreaking drama Waitingf or Godot (1952) provided a prototype of absurd theater. Two chapters focus upon selected early plays of Harold Pinter—The Room (1960), The Birthday Party (1959) and The Caretaker (1960) and Edward Albee, The Zoo Story (1960), The American Dream (1961) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962). These plays demonstrate the characteristics of the Theater of the Absurd—the devaluation of traditional forms of communication; a stage poetry that uses concrete images to display emotions and relationships; a unique blend of silence and dialogue as well as manifest physicaiity and psychological suggestiveness. The plays of vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

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McGuckin, Sheila O'Brien, "The Theater of the Absurd in Europe and America: Sartre, Beckett, Pinter, Albee and drama criticism". (1996). Doctoral .. Philosophers of existentialism such as Sartre wrote plays being caught in air raids during performances, or losing their way en route along darkened.
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