Problem description:
Waiting for Godot and Bald Singer are the representative works of () drama.
1。 Expressionism.
2。 existentialism
3。 Symbolism.
4。 Absurd school
Who can explain? Introduce the class 1-4.
Analysis:
The two works you mentioned belong to absurd plays.
expressionism
Expressionism is an important modernist school in European and American literature from the early 20th century to the 1930s. It started with painting and then spread to music, poetry, drama, novels and movies. Around the First World War, Germany became the center of expressionism, and by the 1920s, it had spread all over Czech Republic, Russia, America and Nordic countries, becoming a world-famous art school. The word expressionism first appeared in 190 1, which was a general term for a group of oil paintings by Julian August Ervi at the Matisse exhibition held in Paris at that time, in order to show its difference from naturalism and impressionism. 1905, three young college students formed the first expressionist club "Bridge" in Dresden, Germany. 19 1 1 year, the German critic Walden published a painting review in The Knockout magazine, which used the word "expressionism" for the first time, and emphasized that it was necessary to break through the external appearance of things and express the inner world, replacing "expression" with "expression", thus pointing out the most basic artistic characteristics of this school. In the same year, the second expressionist society "Blue Knight" appeared in Munich. Since then, expressionism has entered the German literary world, and a number of influential writers have emerged.
The source of expressionist literature can be traced back to the Swedish writer Strindberg (1849— 19 12). His Sonata for Ghosts (1907) and other plays put nightmares and ghosts on the stage, so that the dead, ghosts and the living can appear at the same time. Most of the characters in the play are abstract characters, even without names and personalities, with incoherent plots and unclear development clues. They all expressed their ugly selfish desires and the deep sin and endless pain of the "madhouse" world in a grotesque way. Strindberg is regarded as the pioneer and model of expressionism.
The outstanding representative of expressionist novels is Kafka of Austria (1883— 1924). The representative figure of expressionist drama is Eugene O 'Neill (1888— 1953).
O 'Neill is the most famous dramatist in modern America and one of the outstanding dramatists in the world in the 20th century. He won the Pulitzer Prize four times. He has been experimenting and exploring all his life, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1936 with "the charm, sincerity and profundity of the drama that embodies the traditional concept of tragedy", and is known as the founder of contemporary American drama.
O 'Neill had a rough life. He toured with his mother and brother and his father's troupe since he was a child, and experienced hardships. 1906 was admitted to Princeton University, and was expelled one year later for making trouble. After dropping out of school, I worked as a secretary, went to Honduras to look for gold mines, worked as a clerk and worker in Argentina, and escorted donkeys to Africa. 19 1 1 worked as a sailor on a British cargo ship, 19 12 years later as a journalist and poetry columnist. After writing the script, he became a world drama star. O 'Neill has written 45 plays, among which emperor jones (1920) and Hairy Ape (19 17) are the representative works of O 'Neill's expressionism.
Expressionism advocates that artists should rely on subjective spirit to experience their inner feelings and turn this experience into a kind of * * *. Expressionism often abandons detail description and pursues the inner world composed of deep "illusion" of things. Characters in works often replace individuals with some representative or some abstract essence.
Existentialist literature
Existentialist literature originated in France in 1930s, and reached its peak after World War II. It is the most powerful and popular literary genre in modernist literature.
Existentialism literature is closely related to existentialism philosophy. The word "existentialism" was put forward by German scholar Heidegger (1889-1976). /kloc-in the 9th century, the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard (1813-1855) began to study the problem of human existence. He believes that man's way of existence is "the combination of finite and infinite, temporary and eternal", that is, man's existence in the world is limited and temporary, but man's existence can realize "the unity of god and man", and his soul will ascend to heaven and enter the earth after death. It can be seen that life is existence and death is also a kind of existence. Therefore, existence is infinite and eternal. He also believes that the only way for mankind to get rid of the real crisis, absurdity and pain is to convert to God and realize the unity of God and man. Because Kierkegaard's existentialism theory was inspired by the Christian tradition, he called his existentialism Christian existentialism or theistic existentialism. Husserl (1859-1938) founded phenomenological existentialism, inherited Kierkegaard's theistic existentialism and inspired Sartre's atheistic existentialism. Sartre is a master of contemporary existentialism philosophy, and the popular "existentialism" actually refers to Sartre's existentialism. The core of Sartre's existentialism is "existence precedes essence", "free choice" and "the world is absurd and life is painful". That is to say: human existence comes first, and the essence comes later. It is painful to come to this absurd world, but it is not just to wait for death, but to find a way to survive through "free choice". People have no natural "existence", and the acquired "choice" can create and embody the "essence" of people. Existentialist literature is characterized by rationality over image. The author often publicizes existential philosophical theory in the form of literary works. The characters written by existentialist writers are often bohemian, do whatever they want, or advocate "being born" and entrust their survival to religion in order to get rid of the absurd world (Kierkegaard's Various Stages on the Road to Life); Or advocate "joining the WTO" and make a limited struggle against the absurd world (Sartre's "The End of the Road"); Or advocate "mixed world" and fight against the absurd world with absurd actions (Mailer's "An American Dream").
Absurdity and pain are the basic themes of existential literature. Sartre's The Wall tells the absurdity of the world: the innocent are executed; Tease the enemy and become an out-and-out enemy; He who is determined to die will not die; People who are hiding are caught; Anyone who wants to play tricks on the enemy is fooled by reality. The relationship between people is just like the famous saying in "confinement": "Others are hell."
In art, existential literature contains philosophy in its image, which embodies the characteristics of literature and philosophy. Many of Sartre's and Camus's novels are the visualization of existential philosophy of "absurd world, life is painful"; Sartre's "situation plays" are mostly philosophical explanations of "free choice". Existentialist literature uses all kinds of expression methods in an eclectic way, combining tradition with modernity. Sartre's famous plays have a bad ending, and The Obedient * * * was written in the traditional realistic way. The Fly has a strong symbolic color, and Nausea uses the stream of consciousness technique in many places. Camus's The Outsider adds modernist techniques to the traditional techniques.
symbolism
Symbolism rose formally in France in the mid-1980s, which was a reversal of positivism philosophy represented by Comte and naturalism literature represented by Zola. In the eyes of symbolists, positivism only mechanically demonstrates the causal relationship between practical things, while naturalism focuses on the influence of heredity and environment on the formation of human nature and cannot reveal the essence of art. Symbolists advocate exploring the conceptual world hidden behind nature and creating supernatural art with personal sensitivity and imagination. The thoughts of Nietzsche, Freud and Bergson can be regarded as the philosophical basis of symbolism.
Symbolists pay attention to describing personal phantoms and inner feelings, and rarely involve a wide range of social themes; In terms of artistic methods, it denies vague rhetoric and blunt preaching, and emphasizes the creation with textured images and the methods of suggestion, comparison and association. In addition, symbolism literary works pay more attention to musicality and rhythm.
As an international literary trend of thought, symbolism has different development characteristics in different countries and regions, which involves complex factors such as national temperament, cultural tradition and writer's personal temperament. French symbolism is purer, while Anglo-American symbolism is more complicated. Symbolic literature has achieved the highest achievement in the field of poetry, and many of the greatest poets in the 20th century can be classified as symbolic poets. In addition, symbolism has also made some achievements in the field of drama.
Absurd drama
Absurd drama is an anti-traditional drama school that rose in France in 1950s, and then quickly became popular in other European and American countries. There is no complete and coherent plot, no drama conflict, fragmented stage image and reversed character language. The world it represents is absurd, life is painful, and the relationship between people cannot be communicated. The Absurd School was named after Martin Esslin, a famous British drama theorist (born in 1968+08), who wrote The Absurd School in 1962. On may 1950, 1 1, Eugene Yunescu's bizarre one-act play "The Bald Maid" was staged in Paris. The performance only shocked three audiences in the theatre and soon became a sensation in the Paris Theatre. Some people call it a "serious challenge to all traditional dramas" and a "work of genius". The performance of the bald singer marked the birth of the absurd drama.
Yunescu is the founder and classic writer of the Absurd Drama. 19 12 was born in Romania, with Romanian father and French mother. He spent his childhood in France. 1925 returned to Romania because he hated that people around him were infected by fascist fanaticism like a plague. 1938 went to France to study French literature and settled in France. He often went to the theatre, and gradually became disgusted with it. He believes that traditional drama is a hypocritical cliche and should "break the shackles of traditionalism and rush to the free world", claiming that drama is "the projection of inner struggle on the stage". Younescu has written more than 40 plays, mainly The Bald Singer (1950), The Future is in the Egg (195 1), The Chair (1952) and Amadi or Escape (/kloc).
Adamov (1908- 1970), Jean Genet (born in 19 10), Pinter (born in 1930), Edward Appleley (born in10). Absurd writers believe that the world is absurd and life is meaningless. Therefore, the ugliness and horror of reality, the pain and despair of life have become the themes of absurd works. Broadly speaking, the works and themes of the absurd playwrights are abstract depressive psychology felt in the absurd situation of human beings.
Absurd dramatists believe that absurdity is the essence of the world and irrationality is the core content of drama expression. Therefore, their works deliberately break the traditional drama convention, and have neither the concept of time and space nor the basic model of drama structure; There are no vivid characters, no gripping drama conflicts, only a group of poor people crushed by the world. These people behave strangely, their language is reversed, their thinking is confused and illogical.
Absurd playwrights advocate "pure drama" and think that "artists grasp the world through metaphor". Yunescu declared: "I try to externalize the clumsiness of my role through objects, make stage props speak, and turn actions into visual images ... That's how I try to expand the language of drama." Under the guidance of such a drama view, the props of the absurd drama have brought the "intuitive art" characteristics of the drama to the extreme, resulting in an absurd effect.