The paradox of death and the Theatre of the Absurd
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
The aim of the article is the presentation of some interesting and stimulating questions connected with the problem of eschatological codes in the Theatre of the Absurd. The main objective of this paper is to discuss the topos of Death in the Theatre of the Absurd. Because the subject has been underexplored so far, the author tries to triangulate the Theatre of the Absurd within the genre of drama first, and then moves on to the short reflection on chosen plays of Beckett and Ionesco, concentrating on the role that eschatological elements, funereal objects and eschatons play in them. The starting point of this paper could be called “eschatology of the Absurd” or “immortality deconstructed”. Meaninglessness, as the value of absolute meaning, the meaning (Sinn) and significance (Bedeutung) of Death in the Theatre of the Absurd, is also discussed. As a method of research, he proposes a short “collective phenomenological analysis”. To analyse the issue from a broad perspective, the author takes into account the relationships between the writers and their times, and refers to cultural sources, specifically the Paradox of Death in the Theatre -particularly in the Theatre of the Absurd.
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
COPYRIGHT POLICY
The publisher of "Annales Universitatis Paedagogicae Cracoviensis.Studia Historicolitteraria" is authorised to use and distribute all the materials published in the journal on the basis of a non-exclusive licence agreement unlimited in time – previously concluded for an indefinite period of time each time with the author of a specific paper in the fields of exploitation specified in the agreement.
OPEN ACCESS POLICY
"Annales Universitatis Paedagogicae Cracoviensis.Studia Historicolitteraria” is an open access journal, and all its contents are available for free to users and/or their institutions on the basis of non-exclusive licenses under Creative Commons (CC BY CC-BY-4.0). Users can read, download, make copies, distribute, print, search, or to link to full text articles in this journal without the prior permission of the publisher or the author.This is consistent with the definition of open access BOAI (http://www.soros.org/openaccess).
References
Ankersmit F.R., History and tropology: the rise and fall of metaphor, University of California Press, Berkeley 1994.
Bauman Z., Śmierć i nieśmiertelność. O wielości i strategii życia (translation from the Polish edition by N. Leśniewski), Warszawa 1998 [oryg. Mortality, Immortality and Other Life Strategies – first published in 1992 by Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishers].
Baudrillard J., La Transparence du mal: essai sur les phenomenes extremes, Galilee, Paris 1990.
Brater E., After the Absurd. Rethinking Realism and Few Other Isms, [in:] Around the Absurd. Essays on Modern and Postmodern Drama, Michigan 1990.
Camus A., Le Mythe de Sisyphe, Gallimard, Paris 1942. [Polish edition: Mit Syzyfa in A. Camus, translated into Polish by J. Guze, Warszawa 1991, p. 9].
Davies P., The Ideal Real, Beckett’s Fiction and Imagination, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, London–Toronto 1995, p. 22.
Eliade M., Occultism, witchcraft, and cultural fashions. Essays in comparative religions, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1976.
Esslin M., The Theatre of the Absurd, Eyre and Spottiswoode Press, London 1962.
Heidegger M., Sein und Zeit, Tübingen 1967.
Hodgson T., The Batsford Dictionary of Drama, Batsford, London 1988.
Klimczak D. P., Death and the Theatre of the Absurd. Thanatological motifs in the chosen plays of Samuel Beckett, Eugenio Ionesco and Sławomir Mrożek, dissertation defended on The Jagiellonian University (Uniwersytet Jagielloński) in Krakow (2004).
Klimczak D. P., Od patafizyki do metafizyki dramatu i Teatru Absurdu, „Colloquia Communia”. Idee i ludzie demokracji, ed. J. Mizińska, K. A. Król, Lublin 2003, no. I/(74), pp. 467–498.
Klimczak D. P., Medytacja nad Pustką. Konteksty buddyjskie w „Końcówce” i „Szczęśliwych dniach” Samuela Becketta, „Przestrzenie Teorii”, ed. A. Krajewska, Wyd. Nauk. Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza, Poznań 2004, no. 3/4, pp. 337–371.
Kott J., Ionesco, or a Pregnant Death, [in:] The Dream and the Play. Ionesco’s Theatrical Quest, ed. M. Lazar, Undena Publications, Malibu 1982.
Krajewska A., Dramat i teatr absurdu w Polsce [The Theatre of the Absurd and Drama in Poland], Wyd. Nauk. Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza, Poznań 1996.
Lane N., Understanding Eugéne Ionesco, University of South Carolina Press 1994.
Lyotard J. F., Peregrinations, Columbia University Press, New York 1988.
Maffesoli M., L’Ombre de Dionysos: contribution aune sociologie de l’orgie, Paris 1985.
Pleśniarowicz K., Teatr Śmierci Tadeusza Kantora [The Tadeusz Kantor’s Theatre of Death], Chotomów 1990.
Różanowski R., Absurd nasz powszedni, [in:] Absurd w filozofii i literaturze, ed. by the author, Wrocław 1998.
Tischner J., Filozofia dramatu. Wprowadzenie [The Philospophy of Drama. Introduction], Société D’Éditions Internationales, Paris 1990.