Absurdism

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is, in a nutshell, absurd. In fact, it is absurdism at its finest. In the first chapter, we are introduced to our main characters. Arthur Dent, whose house is to be torn down today to make room for a road and which he only finds out then the demolition team begin the process that day. Then, there is Ford Prefect, Arthur’s best friend, who turns out to be an alien. Where things get truly bizarre, in just the first chapter, is when we discover Ford is an alien…

Experiencing the absurd is a normal, guaranteed part of human life. Every human has experienced something or thought of something absolutely absurd. Not only that, every human has had late night thoughts of what the true meaning of life is. Many people are plagued by thoughts of meaninglessness, and many do not know how to deal with it. Since the beginning of philosophical conversation, the topic of absurdity has pushed philosophy into countless heated conversations and debates that have lasted…

This particular study abroad program encompasses so much of the history and craft that goes into my major. As an artist of the theatre, I need to be aware of the historical significance of theatre and the stories that have been written. Seeing, reading, and visiting monuments and plays will make the history that I’ve learned in class tangible. Attending productions will further allow my creativity as an artist to flourish with diverse genres of theatre that will be available on the trip.…

Hermeneutical Method and Exegetical Paper Literary Criticism is a hermeneutical method which pays close attention to the structure of the text. One of the first question which should be asked when conducting a literary criticism is what genre does the text fall into? When performing a literary criticism as a hermeneutical method, it is also important to establish the pericope of the text as it is extremely unlikely and impractical that a literary criticism would be written about the entire…

Are Dead’ draws upon ‘Hamlet’ heavily in terms of themes, explorations and characters, and although Stoppard sometimes arrives at the same conclusions as Shakespeare, he goes about his exploration in a completely different way – through extreme absurdism rather than plot and action. Both plays attempt to reflect life, but whereas ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’ expresses this through an exaggerated version life, ‘Hamlet’ places its hero at the centre of injustice and wrongdoing, and explores the…

A couple of weeks ago, I went to go see The Skin of Our Teeth. The show is very confusing and I was not a huge fan of it. However, the way the set is laid out and the choices for costumes and some aspects of the acting were quite enjoyable. The script was my main issue that clouded over many of the other parts. To understand the show, we must first see what it is about. The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder is a play that takes part in three acts. It follows the Antrobus family and their maid…

absurd movement describes the meaninglessness and uncertainty of human life. This movement was influenced by existential philosophy of Sartre, Camus and Heidegger. Martin Asslin’s book The Theatre of Absurd is an authentic discussion on the theme of absurdism as presented by post modern dramatists like Beckett, Pinter, Genet, Ionesco, etc. It seems that both Beckett and Pinter reflect the spirit of contemporary society in their works. The post world war European society to which these dramatists…

War has a significant impact on society, revealing certain aspects of human nature otherwise hidden. From a historical perspective, both Joseph Heller and Ian McEwan criticise the nature of war through Catch-22 and Atonement respectively. Both authors reflect upon values and attitudes present during wartime through the portrayal of characters reflecting these and create a ‘constructed world’ of war, reflecting aspects of reality, to discuss and criticise the questioning of reality consequential…

Joyful Lucidity Towards the Absurd Is a life full of suffering still worth living? Louis C.K. and Albert Camus argue that this is the question facing all of humanity. “The whole world is just made of people who didn't kill themselves today,” Louis C.K. points out. In Louis C.K.'s comedy routine, Louis C.K. 2017, he ridicules the many painful things in life in order to argue that life is characterized by meaningless hardship. Albert Camus similarly views the human experience as such, and in…

Albert Camus addresses the steps one should take when dealing with the notion of absurdity in order to make the choice to live without appeal. In the Myth of Sisyphus, Camus defines the clash between the irrational world and humans seeking for rational answers as absurdity. He then outlines the best solution for acknowledging the lack of meaning in life while not turning to suicide. There are many parallels to his reasoning in The Plague, where he uses the threat of sickness in a quarantined…