The theatre of the absurd
Martin Esslin (Author)
The plays of Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Arthur Adamov, Jean Genet, and a number of other avant-garde writers in France, Britain, Italy, Spain, Germany, and the United States mark a new development in the contemporary theatre. Because its basic premise is the absurdity of the human condition, Martin Eslin has called it the Theatre of the Absurd. In this book he analyzes the work of its major exponenets and traces its antecents ... At the same time he shows how it reflects the changes in science, psychology, and philosophy that have been taking place--Cover
Print Book, English, 1961
First edition View all formats and editions
Anchor Books, Doubleday and Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1961
Anchor Books, A279
History
xxiv, 364 pages ; 18 cm.
329986
Preface
Introduction: the absurdity of the absurd
Samuel Beckett: the search for the self
Arthur Adamov: the curable and the incurable
Eugene Ionesco: theatre and anti-theatre
Jean Genet: a hall of mirrors
Parallels and proselytes: Jean Tardieu, Boris Vian, Dino Buzzati, Ezio d'Errico, Manuel de Pedrolo, Fernando Arrabal, Amos Kenan, Max Frisch, Wolfgang Hildesheimer, Günter Grass, Robert Pinget, Harold Pinter, Norman Frederick Simpson, Edward Albee
The tradition of the absurd
The significance of the absurd
Notes
Cover design: Jack Wolfgang Beck