Search

Ontology is a term they use to understand existence. This concept, which is one of the important philosophical topics, has also found its way into poetry, because poetry has always been a suitable platform for easier understanding of philosophical issues. Poetry is the highest art that can express the type of view and world view of poets towards life and the issues raised in it; For this reason, to discover the ontological horizon of each poet, one should refer to his poetry. In this study, with descriptive-analytical method, we are looking for the answer to this basic question, what are the reflections of concepts such as "death thinking", "predestination" and "absurdism" in the sky of thought and ontology of Vajid Shirazi, a poet of the 14th century? Based on the findings of the present research, it can be claimed that Wajid is a death-minded poet and recommends deaththinking to his audience. He has a contradictory view of death and has considered death from both its pleasant and unpleasant aspects. Also, based on the current findings, Wajid is a determinist poet who, despite the few references he made to the power of human will, the dominance of deterministic thinking is evident in all of his poems. Due to his monotheistic and religious ideas, Wajid cannot be fully classified among nihilists, but the existence of factors such as ignorance of the secret of existence and philosophical and religious doubts have brought him closer to nihilistic ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When approaching the climate crisis, there appears to be a universal tendency towards philosophical suicide. When faced with the sheer scale of the problem at hand, falling for the façade of easy solutions seems to be an expected response. However, this tendency towards philosophical suicide may complicate the fight against the climate crisis by drawing attention away from the problem at hand. To approach this problem, the overarching purpose of this article is to determine how the change in the philosophical approach to the absurd may assist in framing the fight against climate change. During the investigation into this problem, it was found that philosophical suicide is a real problem that may be chosen when easy solutions are offered for a problem that sufficiently threatens the individual’s state of existence. Furthermore, this philosophical suicide threatens the fight against climate change due to it leading individuals to believe lies perpetrated through strategies like greenwashing. This is of crucial importance since philosophical suicide threatens the fight against the climate crisis by not allowing individuals to consciously approach the problem. However, there does appear to be some hope. If the newer generations are sufficiently educated on the topic, there may be a chance that philosophical suicide, as well as the prevailing sense of dread that appears to be rampant in the younger generations, can be countered. In this way, educating individuals may enable them to consciously approach the absurdity of the climate crisis and, in doing so, revolt against it.

When approaching the climate crisis, there appears to be a universal tendency towards philosophical suicide. When faced with the sheer scale of the problem at hand, falling for the façade of easy solutions seems to be an expected response. However, this tendency towards philosophical suicide may complicate the fight against the climate crisis by drawing attention away from the problem at hand. To approach this problem, the overarching purpose of this article is to determine how the change in the philosophical approach to the absurd may assist in framing the fight against climate change. During the investigation into this problem, it was found that philosophical suicide is a real problem that may be chosen when easy solutions are offered for a problem that sufficiently threatens the individual's state of existence. Furthermore, this philosophical suicide threatens the fight against climate change due to it leading individuals to believe lies perpetrated through strategies like greenwashing. This is of crucial importance since philosophical suicide threatens the fight against the climate crisis by not allowing individuals to consciously approach the problem. However, there does appear to be some hope. If the newer generations are sufficiently educated on the topic, there may be a chance that philosophical suicide, as well as the prevailing sense of dread that appears to be rampant in the younger generations, can be countered. In this way, educating individuals may enable them to consciously approach the absurdity of the climate crisis and, in doing so, revolt against it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last of Bernard Shaw’s “Irish” plays, The Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman (1921), raises the same concerns over colonialism, nationalism, and identity explored in John Bull’s Other Island (1904) and O’Flaherty V.C.: A Recruiting Pamphlet (1915) but does so from outside his preferred dramatic style, theatrical Realism. In this proto-Absurdist experiment, Shaw invents an Ireland in which differences of religion, class, and politics are moot; in 3000 A.D., age is the only category of social distinction. Experimenting with dramaturgical form and eschewing mimetic scenic design, Shaw utilizes Ireland’s mythic wildness and the transformational effect of its climate as an affective element of the play’s argument. Through Shaw’s treatment of space, this future Ireland with its inherently Irish inhabitants becomes the utopic home to a superior race that portends a life beyond the oppressive British/Irish and later intra-national binary partisan reality of post-WWI and pre-Free State Ireland.

By using Freud’s theory of humour (1927) and his Jokes in their relation to the unconscious (1905), we follow the dominant features of the humour-pathos nexus from the late Victorian to the postmodernist literary decadence, taking in our stride the two peaking twentieth century modernist texts published by T.S. Eliot and James Joyce in 1922 Britain. We begin with Oscar Wilde’s popular The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) in relation to Walter Pater’s less well-known autobiographical novel Marius the Epicurean (1885), showing what relation the latter has with T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and James Joyce’s Ulysses. The modernist genial humour of Eliot’s 1939 Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats is contrasted with Tom Stoppard’s in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) and with the dark humour closer to pathos in The Life and Songs of the Crow (1970) by Ted Hughes.

Copyright of ABEI Journal: The Brazilian Journal of Irish Studies is the property of Associacao Brasileira de Estudos Irlandeses and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Many scholars discussing the pandemic issues tend to use Western perspectives. To question this hegemony, this paper investigates Albert Camus’s The Plague (1947) by using Islamic perspectives to challenge the dominant views in evaluating literary canon and pandemic studies. By engaging with postcolonialism and pandemic studies with the frameworks of Islamic studies, this research investigates what differences in pandemic issues are explored in Camus’s novel and how Islam advocates for Muslims to deal with the pandemic problems. The focus of this novel is mainly on European culture and perspectives, although the setting of the novel is Algeria, which is one of the largest Muslim populations in the world. Thus, it is essential to apply the Islamic perspectives in investigating this novel to understand how Islam encourages Muslims to believe and worship God as a way of living instead of being atheists, selfish, and hedonists, as this novel reveals. This research found that the author uses the ideas of absurdism, isolation, and superstitions by depicting the characters as struggling to face the bubonic plague. However, the characters still live in atheism and believe in superstitions instead of worshipping God as Islam advocates.

The game is understood as a complex phenomenon in which the player's action is characterized by its ethical nature, as it expresses subjectivity and aims for the good life (in the case of game, pleasure and victory). Thus, the ethical nature of the player's action is forged in a gaming environment where unpredictability, dynamics, and new organizations are present. Therefore, part of the player's role is to understand the environment in which they find themselves, that is, to understand how the organizations of the game are produced. Similarly, Albert Camus' concept of "absurdism", created by the French-Algerian philosopher, resembles this requirement to understand the environment in which one lives by exalting awareness. Consequently, according to Camus, the only possible movement after becoming aware of the absurdism is revolt, an action based on the expression of the individual, aiming for justice, collectivity and unity, within limits that must not be exceeded. Hence, the possibility of understanding the player as a man in revolt in the game, seeking, given the identification of the environment in which they find themselves, the success of their team through their actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay offers strategies that can lead students to engage with Gao Xingjian and his plays of the 1980s through an analytical and creative learning experience. Student project design focuses on three plays that were publicly staged in China during the 1980s: Alarm Signal, The Bus Stop, and Wild Man. Reflecting on the challenges inherent in approaching Gao's plays, I argue that students in North America require a pedagogy that foregrounds Gao's conceptualization of theatre as an actor-centered, instead of script-centered, performing art. The essay concludes that leading students to a deeper understanding of how Gao composed "performance texts" – rather than "texts to be voiced" – is critical to their understanding of these plays as a key link in the chain of China's drama and theatre history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this inquiry, I explore, expose, and extrapolate upon sociopolitical and environmental absurdism as an environmental academic and educator based in Alberta, Canada—a well-known, and somewhat infamous, centre of oil and gas production and energy development in general. Moving beyond Alberta as a catalytic example, I introduce and discuss various forms of and themes within absurdist literature, theatre, and activism. In closing, I consider the theoretical and pedagogical potential of absurdism for environmental education scholarship and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need to “think outside the box”. As societies across the planet gradually become more interconnected, the dominance of outmoded social practices surrounding human interaction, work, leisure and space is being challenged on a daily basis. Mediatic productions such as film have always presented opportunities for expanding the reach of particular messages and disseminating topical views and perspectives. In honour of Federico Fellini (1920-1993) on the 100th anniversary of his birth, this paper undertakes a comprehensive comparison between the bold and absurdist cinema of the Post-Neorealist filmmaker and today’s also strange and perplexing social environment. Contextualising his cinema within an auteurist framework, we highlight how ground-breaking Fellini was in embracing the unconventional; by doing so he provided a practical guide for navigating contemporary reality. With productions that seduce and impress viewers worldwide, Fellini defied established cinematographic practices, as exemplified by his experimentation with overlapping narrative styles. His films bestir a new way of thinking by generating an anomalous world, one where events take place beyond the scope of what the viewer anticipates as “natural”. But the appraisal of what is “natural” is contingent upon the viewer’s belief structure: by presenting a world where events happen outside the realm of practical expectations, Fellini’s timeless cinema questions outdated belief systems and sets the guidelines for how to navigate the unanticipated complexities of the contemporary world. Reality and fiction merge into one.

This article traces the reinvention and circulation of existential thought and action through the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the first half of the 1960s, especially in Mississippi. Here, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Moses, and the founders of the Free Southern Theater, among others, immersed themselves in the existential questions of freedom and responsibility, pointing the way toward ethical action at a time when there was, as the characters of the FST's production of Waiting for Godot put it, "nothing to be done." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of Samuel Beckett's theatre in the London theatre scene in the 1950s has become a turning point in the history of British theatre. Having written plays whose then innovative dramatic language comprises verbal, visual and performative elements which at first caused great estrangement among directors, actors and spectators, Beckett remarkably reconfigured what theatre can mean. In this article, I will discuss distinctive features of Beckett's theatre that have given rise to an absurdist aesthetics whose meta-theatricality subverts key principles of theatrical naturalism. Looking at Beckettian dramaturgy and performance, I will examine different ways in which plays like Waiting for Godot, Endgame and Happy Days declare their own theatricality, thus preventing the creation of dramatic illusion characteristic of naturalistic theatre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing the patient's anxieties about the meaning of life and death as integral phenomena of the life cycle is not commonly discussed in the analytic literature. A central dilemma of analytic work is the effort to facilitate change in the life of a suffering patient while also bearing in mind the inescapable human destiny, i.e., the certainty of death. All too often, these factors remain in the background while dealing with other conflicts or misfortunes. The analyst, like the patient, is aware of the brevity of life and is susceptible to the same fate, and thus may feel defenseless, helpless, and limited in what can be offered. This article incorporates the existentialist thinking of Camus on the subject and illuminates it with analytic work with unspoken trauma of a second-generation Holocaust survivor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Internationale Neerlandistiek is the property of Amsterdam University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper studies the retelling of Albert Camus' The Outsider written by the Algerian writer-journalist Kamel Daoud, entitled The Meursault Investigation. Daoud's novel is analyzed in the light of three important Bakhtinian notions - Dialogism, Chronotope, and Heteroglossia. We see that through his novel, Daoud has not only counter narrativized the original story but also has broadened the scope of the philosophy of absurdism. While expatiating on Absurdism during the first half of the 2oth century, Camus' readership was limited to the European world or only those who had access to it. The exclusion of Arabs from his writings while writing from Algeria, as an Algerian and the use of French language indeed mark the boundaries of his work. The literary adaptation by Kamel Daoud tries to fill the cavity in Camus' work. On the other hand, the adaptation is taken to be a counter narrative to the original narrative. The study of such counter narratives has become ever so important in a society ridden by a binary logic and dialecticism. Daoud's retelling shows the way to understand and represent histories in a non-binary and an inclusive manner. He has not discarded Camus and his discourse entirely in order to give the Arab a voice in the original narrative. This further opens a multitude of questions and outlooks on further research on the role of counter narratives in dismantling the existing social order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to unmask the sharp vestiges of Absurdity as an offshoot of Existentialism both through the form and content of the play, for which, a skull-like room devoid of any sign of life and hope has been designed. As a matter of fact, this research focuses on the imbroglio after the Second World War from which no exit door could be found and this overwhelming bog is mostly represented through the two characters who are called Hamm and Clov. In addition to that, the co-dependency between the Modern Men as an absurdist notion is represented through the bonding between Hamm and Clov; although Clov every now and then gets exhausted by giving services to Hamm, he supposes that if the bonding between them is torn, their existence will be at stake. It is worth mentioning that the cyclical pattern of the play as an embodiment of the cyclical stasis of human existence alongside the unconscionable repetitions in characters' dialogues which stands for the emptiness and meaninglessness of modern life will be discussed in detail. Apart from the absurdist features of Endgame which have been succinctly referred to, another underlying trait of this literary movement, namely the failure of language to help the characters communicate well and its pivotal role as a propeller towards their isolation and alienation will be scrutinized. Finally, an important question, which has made Endgame's attentive readers overly curious is to be answered in this research; the question is that 'are characters' actions in this play a representation of Existentialist philosophy or Absurdism?'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What can memes teach us about shifting popular-cultural understandings of nature? While a certain form of environmentalism with proclivities for dour, self-righteous, sentimental, or apocalyptic tones is often taken to be hegemonic, Nicole Seymour argues that a more irreverent 'low environmental culture' should not be occluded. Humor and irony can serve as emotional registers for environmental media that provide openings for the emergence of playful environmentalisms perhaps more amenable to a diverse audience. Such 'bad environmentalism' mobilizes humor by transgressing the emotional norms of piety within environmentalism. This article deepens the concept of bad environmentalism through an examination of the emergence of 'nature is healing' memes during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Implicitly critical of nefarious arguments that the death-dealing pandemic would provide a 'pause for nature' and thus that 'humans were the real virus', the formal and easily reproduced 'nature is healing' genre subverts conventional understandings of 'the natural' as well as the naturalization of social order and political economy. In particular, I extend Seymour's argument – and pop cultural studies of the environment – by parsing five modes through which the 'nature is healing' genre plays ironically on differing understandings of the natural. These are the out-of-place in nature; nature out-of-place; drawing attention to a naturalized social order; naturalizing social transformation; and absurdity in the natural world. Close attention to different modes of humor provides insight into the ambivalence of affect within ecological and political movements; 'bad affect' can, after all, produce careful and critical aesthetics. Such research demonstrates the utility of a widened and potentially counterhegemonic repertoire of affective responses to environmental and political crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that through an engagement with cross-media hybridity, Irish comedy duo The Rubberbandits have established a dynamic cross-media forum that aims to restore the Irish public’s capacity for critical social and political engagement. Central to this process is The Rubberbandits’ ability to use their absurdist satire as a foundational tool that can serve as the basis of this cultural forum, while also facilitating the negotiation of social and political issues across a variety of media. Given that this cultural forum exists across different media, platforms, and formats, this paper sets out to analyse the various ways in which the duo have adapted their satirical style to suit the demands of these different media forms, and what implications this process of adaption has had on their work. Beginning with an analysis of the social and critical functions of satirical comedy more broadly, this paper will then focus on the specific brand of satirical social commentary employed by The Rubberbandits, paying particular attention to the role of absurdity in their critical engagement with prominent issues facing Irish society. As this paper will demonstrate, by embracing the hybridity of the cross-media environment, all the while maintaining their absurdist satirical style, The Rubberbandits have established a dynamic and carnivalesque cross-media forum that aims to restore the Irish public’s capacity for critical social and political engagement.

Flooded by rising seas and resurgent nationalist politics, ours is a world in peril. How should we comport ourselves for the climate crisis? To answer this question, this essay reviews several works of Albert Camus, the prescient Algerian-French philosopher of the previous century. Camus's concept of the Absurd may help us understand our plight in a changing climate, whereas his ethic of rebellion advises a way of living that begets solidarity in crisis and affirms a shared humanity. Camus's ideas have urgent relevance today, and we ought to heed them as we carry on the fight for climate action.

Copyright of Enthymema is the property of Enthymema, International Journal of Literary Criticism, Literary Theory & Philosophy of Literature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The current COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need to "think outside the box". As societies across the planet gradually become more interconnected, the dominance of outmoded social practices surrounding human interaction, work, leisure and space is being challenged on a daily basis. Mediatic productions such as film have always presented opportunities for expanding the reach of particular messages and disseminating topical views and perspectives. In honour of Federico Fellini (1920-1993) on the 100th anniversary of his birth, this paper undertakes a comprehensive comparison between the bold and absurdist cinema of the Post-Neorealist filmmaker and today's also strange and perplexing social environment. Contextualising his cinema within an auteurist framework, we highlight how ground-breaking Fellini was in embracing the unconventional; by doing so he provided a practical guide for navigating contemporary reality. With productions that seduce and impress viewers worldwide, Fellini defied established cinematographic practices, as exemplified by his experimentation with overlapping narrative styles. His films bestir a new way of thinking by generating an anomalous world, one where events take place beyond the scope of what the viewer anticipates as "natural". But the appraisal of what is "natural" is contingent upon the viewer's belief structure: by presenting a world where events happen outside the realm of practical expectations, Fellini's timeless cinema questions outdated belief systems and sets the guidelines for how to navigate the unanticipated complexities of the contemporary world. Reality and fiction merge into one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whenever it is said there is no truth in place, this question comes up as to whether the truth itself does exist or not? Two answers are offered for this question. First, there is no truth other than the truth that there is no truth (modern nihilism). Secondly, there is no truth even the truth that there is no truth (postmodern nihilism). This paper aims at exploring the second answer by presenting examples of the claim in postmodernism. While pluralism states that there is no absolute truth, nihilism asserts that there is absolutely no truth and that the same truth is not true as well. Hence, postmodern nihilism is self-contradictory based on its realistic interpretations and self-reflective based on its nihilistic interpretations. Post-structuralism is nihilist from the epistemological perspectives because it claims that no cognizance can be generalized and adjusted to the world but it is probably not nihilist in terms of semiotics because it does not deny the principle of implication. Deconstruction is nihilistic and devastative for the authorship-oriented person exercising centralism. Post-colonial nihilism is also indicative of the destruction and disapproval of the identity of the colonialized lands as well as reflective of the denial of the identity of the minority races like the black. Gender nihilism engages in denial of gender and queer nihilism denies any sort of sexual, gender, and identity normality.

Theorizing about literature over the centuries has been a significant intellectual exercise of high degree that has, among other things, majorly kept the study of literature afloat. The thrust of theory, on this note, is to give perspectives to literature; that is, a conceptual framework for its critical investigation. Against this background, this study has also attempted to conceptualize a relatively novel critical framework in dramatic studies which has been referred to as ‘existential-tragedy’. The concept is woven around the philosophical nexus of Absurdism and Tragedy with the theoretical assumption drawn from the Nietzschean principle of ‘Primal Unity’ in Birth of Tragedy. It encapsulates man as a being in existence who is caught up in an enclosed journey between creation and annihilation, and who constantly demonstrates an unconscious awareness to this underlying reality through his series of engagements in life. This unconscious phenomenon is contextualized in this study as ‘death anxiety’ which silently characterizes man’s struggles with life, as actors on the stage. Ultimately, the study is being established as a move towards theorizing a new conceptual framework and/or critical context, not only in the analysis of tragic and absurd plays, but also in literary criticism at large.

This paper pursues three goals: First, to develop a lateral reading of Camus' Stranger. A lateral reading is characterized by the displacement of the central conflict. In the case of The Stranger, I argue that the central conflict in the novel lies in the relation between the author and the protagonist, not, as direct readings would have it, in the relation between the protagonist and his predicament. Second, to spell out more precisely why it should be read as an anti-existentialist novel. Here I argue that a lateral reading shows that the foundational existentialist opposition between telling and living is ironically dismantled by the very lateral structure of the novel. Third, to develop the notion of a lateral reading with a view to its potential advantages. Here, I point out that literalism involves positionalism and dynamicism. Positionalism refers to the reduction of fictional entities to their role in relation to each other. Dynamicism refers to the resulting view that those roles are further reducible to forces. I conclude that the lateral reading, with its commitments to positionalism and dynamicism is a model generalizable to the analysis of other fictional works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon qualitative and construct validity evidence within MI research and the oral histories of combat-exposed Veterans, this paper explores the role of moral paradox (MP) as a precondition of moral injury (MI). Research is recommended to clearly delineate MP as a causative factor leading to more intractable cases of MI in the definitional literature, beyond the recognized impact of perpetration and betrayal-based conditions. Veteran stories collected during the normal course of providing spiritual care to combat-exposed Veterans and used by permission will provide insight into the theoretical concepts and interrelations of MP; proposed here as: circumstances in which moral obligations and/or ethical values come into conflict, forcing a choice between sides, none of which can be honored without violating the other. Acquainted with religious traditions that elucidate the perplexity and liberating effects of paradox, the work of Chaplains will also be recommended to address the problem of MP in wartime situations, highlighting the efficacy of acceptance-based spiritual interventions and therapeutic programs. Psychological and spiritual interventions that facilitate self-transcendence and non-dual awareness through experiential acceptance and a subscale measuring paradox-induced injury will be recommended for future research as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article was written within the educational project “The Virtual Museum of Writers of the Southern Urals” of the Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education “South Ural State University (national research university)”. The purpose of the museum is to identify and demonstrate the enormous literary potential of the Southern Urals. This article is based on the material of the creative work of the poets of Chelyabinsk, since they are the key personnel of the virtual museum. The purpose of the article is to investigate current literary tendencies related to the regional text phenomenon (mythologization of urban space, urbanism, autobiography of poetry) in the works of three generations of modern poetry of Chelyabinsk: older, middle and younger. The image of regional climatic features and landscape features is one of the current thematic trends for those older Chelyabinsk poets who continue the traditions of classical and Soviet poetry. At the same time, such emblematic figures of the regional literary process as N.F. Boldyrev, V.O. Kalpidi continue the avant-garde traditions, are engaged in the search for new forms of expression in poetry. So, N.F. Boldyrev experiments with genres of oriental lyrics (haiku), V.O. Kalpidi - with the synthesis of different genres and literature directions. The peculiarity of the poetry of the Chelyabinsk authors of the middle generation is the confession and autobiography associated with a specific locus - Chelyabinsk. Most poets of the middle generation entered the literary life in the 90s, which was reflected in their poetics in the image of chaotic and absurd everyday reality. In the description of the Chelyabinsk space, the authors of the middle generation (A. Samoilov, J. Grants) inherit the Lianozovo school tradition of capturing the life of the suburbs, minimalism and aestheticism of the authors of the Lianozovo group. For the younger generation (A. Manichenko, D. Masharygin, E. Obolikshta, R. Yapishin) the cosmopolitan myth becomes an actual tendency, in which the lyrical hero moves in the intertextual space uniting a multitude of cultural texts

Humour traditionally referred to any type of speech, writing, or composition that was ludicrous or amusing. In the past few decades, humour has been rapidly included in the online world, often in the form of visual media. From stand-up and satire, to sketch comedy and parodies, YouTube has emerged as a flexible medium of communication. With the expansion of what is considered "funny," various niche forms of comedy have emerged, including absurdist comedy. The Lonely Island is a sketch comedy trio comprising of Akiva Schaffer, Andy Samberg, and Jorma Taccone. It has gained massive popularity on YouTube and the American show Saturday Night Live. This paper attempts to understand the essence of the humour used by The Lonely Island by analyzing their most formidable digital short, The Shooting (Dear Sister), and two of their songs (Like a Boss, and YOLO). In this process, the paper explores how absurdist or 'stupid comedy' is rich with data that provides insight into millennial and internet psychology. The analysis of their original content is aimed at providing a deeper understanding of the manner in which absurdism can be transformed into a unique brand of humour that is both popular and contextually relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that through an engagement with cross-media hybridity, Irish comedy duo The Rubberbandits have established a dynamic cross-media forum that aims to restore the Irish public's capacity for critical social and political engagement. Central to this process is The Rubberbandits' ability to use their absurdist satire as a foundational tool that can serve as the basis of this cultural forum, while also facilitating the negotiation of social and political issues across a variety of media. Given that this cultural forum exists across different media, platforms, and formats, this paper sets out to analyse the various ways in which the duo have adapted their satirical style to suit the demands of these different media forms, and what implications this process of adaption has had on their work. Beginning with an analysis of the social and critical functions of satirical comedy more broadly, this paper will then focus on the specific brand of satirical social commentary employed by The Rubberbandits, paying particular attention to the role of absurdity in their critical engagement with prominent issues facing Irish society. As this paper will demonstrate, by embracing the hybridity of the crossmedia environment, all the while maintaining their absurdist satirical style, The Rubberbandits have established a dynamic and carnivalesque cross-media forum that aims to restore the Irish public's capacity for critical social and political engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the rapid development and changes that are becoming prevalent in the region, revisiting short stories written by the Saudi author Umayma Al-Khamis in the anthology Arab Women Writers (2005; trans. Cohen-Mor) provides a point of contrast and discussion of the societal role of the Arab woman in the post-modern world. The texts chosen for analysis are part of an anthology that aims to "introduce the English reader to the Arab Woman's ways of life" (Cohen-Mor 2). This paper utilises Text World Theory as a cognitive poetic framework to analyse the two short stories, "Waiting for Hayla" and "Restoration." Whereas the short stories in the collection were translated into English for a Western audience, the world-building triggered by the text depends on some knowledge and recognition of the cultural assumptions of the Saudi society. This analysis shows that the texts can also be read as absurdist due to the shared themes of existentialism and futility of existence in them, which rely on the world-building elements more than the limited cultural knowledge provided by the text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The film Brazil , directed by Terry Gilliam (1985), is usually described as something of absurdist theater. It is also, more implicitly, a conversation about bureaucracy, administrative regulation, and dynamic relations of art vis-à-vis everyday life. This article explores that conversation, drawing in part on Hegel and Max Weber, along with the screenplay of this and other films by Gilliam, guided by the question, "How would one know whether 'life imitates art' rather than the reverse?" [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

de[re]territorialisation adopts a bi-column structure as a method to explore how meaning is distributed between human and digital voices. This bi-discursive paper was generated via a performative gesture where words spoken by a human subject, occupying the left-hand column, were translated by a digital subject to produce text for the right-hand column. de[re]territorialisation explores the potentiality for new narrative flows to be produced through errancy and anomaly, and the capacity for the interplay between the human voice and computational voice recognition systems to deterritorialise and reterritorialise content.

Cormac McCarthy's Suttree explores humanity's suffering in its longing for meaning and significance alongside the indifference of the universe to this longing, a pairing Albert Camus calls "the absurd." Existential despair and endurance are present in all of McCarthy's works, even his short stories, and McCarthy scholars record and examine the philosophy of existentialism within McCarthy's novels, especially Suttree. In Suttree, the protagonist, Cornelius Suttree, adeptly perceives the indifference of the universe and the meaninglessness of existence. However, instead of resigning to this meaninglessness or obscuring human reality with unreasonable hopes, he lives according to an ethic of quantity and affirms his temporary existence to his greatest possible magnitude. After realizing his autonomy and uniqueness, Suttree exemplifies an authentic embrace of life's momentary value and becomes the willful author of his fate. A thorough examination of Suttree through the lens of existentialist philosophy, particularly Camus's absurdism, equips us with an understanding with which to approach McCarthy's other works. A cohesive existentialist reading of McCarthy's works would establish a foundational purpose that unites all of his works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the dialectical mechanism and absurdity, which have occupied the bulk of concerns of contemporary writers, thinkers and philosophers. Zakaria Tamer, who begins the song "Blue Coarse" with a philosophical vision interspersed with absurdity, realistic black criticism and rhetoric toward those influenced by materialism and machinations in this degenerate world where original values and ideals were lost. As such, the basic problem of the research is to determine the role of the text's semantics and its thresholds which help readers absorb the subject mentioned in "the Blue Coarse" to plot based on the theory of French critic Gerard Genette, who shows his critical experience of relations and transcendental transcripts in different ways. The most important findings of this study are based on the descriptive-analytical approach. The title and effectiveness of color, text, space, time, and the character in the semantic field based on the coding and displacement through metaphors, as receptive mechanisms, illustrates the ability of Tamer in the field of creativity and the reflection of absurdity that makes man depart from humanity and self purity. Many of them seek to rebel the pressure and change the harsh conditions and others because of their sense of frustration and despair that are subject to surrender from the absurdity of life that is alienating, sinhrl or suicidal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new 25 minute radiophonic ethnodrama by Paul Antick and Jo Langton, Smith in Belfast is the account of one man's journey through a series of situations and conversations, the contents of which refer in sometimes roundabout ways to the linguistic, legal, architectural, social and sartorial aftermath(s) of 'the Troubles' in Northern Ireland. Composed of a series of relatively unsettling, often absurdly oblique vignettes - staged in pubs, ‘chippers’, parks and on street corners - Smith in Belfast culminates in the troubling impersonation - by its English protagonist Smith - of an ex-paramilitary tour guide careering though memories of old photographs and film footage of ‘the Troubles’ in front of a concerned group of visitors somewhere on the Falls Road. As Brexit negotiations stumble on, Smith in Belfast – an expurgated version of which originally aired on Resonance FM in 2017 - is a strange and timely reminder that although the war in Northern Ireland may be over, many of the contradictions that fuelled the conflict there, contradictions that ostensibly turned on the relationship between issues of national sovereignty and social identity, have never been entirely resolved. Smith in Belfast is a radiophonic alert to the possibility that the pain Brexit could conceivably inflict on the province (and beyond) might, in the face of political solipsism and creeping English nationalism, potentially involve more than a hike in the price of wine. Note that although this production explicitly references some ‘real life’ historical figures and events, and also (apparently) draws on conversations and situations its author enjoyed on the ‘Troubles tours’ of Belfast he attended during the summer of 2014, it, like all of the characters in it, is almost emphatically fictional.

The American School of Absurdism was inaugurated by Edward Albee in the second half of the 20th century following his British and European counterparts. Features peculiar to Absurdism, like existential angst, sense of loneliness, experiences of meaninglessness, emptiness, loss of faith in established institutions and breakdown of communication in relationships were explored by Albee in his numerous plays. However, A Delicate Balance delves deeper into an area unexplored by other absurdist playwrights, namely hegemony. A set of old friends, the couple Harry and Agnes move into the household of Tobias and Agnes and thence disturb the delicate balance prevailing in a fragile manner in the lives of the latter couple who are already grappling with the death of a young son and the need to handle two women, an acutely alcoholic spinster sister in Claire and a recently returned, much divorced daughter Julia. Power play, domination, hegemony and related colonial traits are brought into force by the visiting couple who arrive as unwelcome guests and leave the hosts both exasperated and relieved on their exit. The impact of their forced visit was much like that of the colonized on the natives and their departure left scars as well as an identity crisis similar to the Post-colonial experience. The research paper makes a study into Post-colonial dynamics that come into play in a supposedly absurdist play, thereby displacing absurdum with realism. That the descending of a first friendly then oppressive force on a struggling family or country can have irreversible after effects is revealed through the power dynamics conveyed though the verbal interactions and linguistic exchanges between characters. Edward Albee transcends the realm of absurdum in creating a postcolonial discourse in American Drama. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late 1950s, the Argentine writer Abelardo Castillo has published the cultural magazines El Grillo de Papel (1959-1960), El Escarabajo de Oro (1961-1974) and El Ornitorrinco (1977-1986). Under Sartre's notorious influence, their pages framed the theater in philosophical, sociological, and political discussions. This study of critical reception shows different ways in which these publications intervened accompanying the irruption of European absurdity in the Río de la Plata cultural field: from the beginning in the transdisciplinary and experimental El Grillo ..., to the interest in avant-garde expressions and the problems they present in front of the models of traditional representation, deployed in El Escarabajo ... This trail inscribes traces of a genealogy of the independent theater, as well as episodes of the debate on the social function of theater.

The article is devoted to modern scientific discussions on the value of significance of the absurd phenomenon in the socio-cultural context. The author uses philosophical—anthropological and axiological approaches, methods of comparativistics. A distinction between the concepts of absurdity and absurdism is introduced. There are two alternative points of view that were formed on the issue of evaluating the absurd. Within the framework of the first, absurdity is mainly classified as a negative phenomenon, while the second considers its positive functions. The tendency of socio—cultural legitimization of absurdity and absurdism is described in both real and virtual space. In particular, the phenomenon of flash mob and subculture of freaks is considered. The arguments of critics of absurdism, who qualify it as a kind of social disease in most cases are analyzed. In the conclusion of the article some areas for further research in this area are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Death denial is a psychological impulse and a cultural attitude that banishes thoughts about death and disavows the reality of personal mortality. In theatre, death denial can function as an unexamined philosophy and conditioning element unless it is foregrounded and challenged. In this article, Adrian Curtin looks at two examples of American experimental theatre that did just that: a 1975 production of Dino Buzzati's 1953 play Un Caso Clinico (A Clinical Case) and Terminal (1969–1971), a collectively created work by the Open Theatre. Buzzati's play is little known, especially in English-language scholarship. This article pairs an obscure work with a canonical work in order to offer new insight into American experimental theatre of the early 1970s, indicating how both productions contributed to the contemporaneous ‘death awareness’ movement, which opened up matters relating to death and dying. These productions highlighted the illogicality and absurdity of death denial, exposing the delusional basis of this attitude and its potentially damaging effects on the individual and society. Adrian Curtin lectures in the Drama Department at the University of Exeter. He is the author of Avant-Garde Theatre Sound: Staging Sonic Modernity (Palgrave, 2014) and multiple essays on theatre sound, musical performance, and modernism. He is the 2015 winner of the Early Career Research Prize, awarded by the Theatre and Performance Research Association. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Published in 1961, Joseph Heller's Catch-22 came into prominence among important American novels of the twentieth century. It coined a new expression that connotes the illogical, inconsistent and irrational situations. It deals with the absurdities and unsolvable paradoxical policies of the state's policymaking groups that drive the individuals into a meaningless, absurdist worldview. It is likely as well to assert that Catch-22 is a novel, which reflects and promote an existential worldview. However, this worldview is closer to Sartre's standpoint than that of Camus'. Considering the novel, the existential philosophy of Sartre (which suggests that we're able to basically invent meanings of our own) and Camus' absurdism (which suggests that the search for meaning is in itself both absurd and determined to fail, so; we should embrace the absurd and find happiness in it), this article aims to underline the importance of adopting the existential philosophy of Sartre for the individuals to cope with the sense of nihilism when confronted with the absurdities of today's world policy making groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Moderna Sprak is the property of Institutionen for Moderna Sprak and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The metaphor of transition has produced one of the most powerful images that captured the global historical momentum of the late twentieth century. Even though its teleological implications have been critiqued, we still live in the shadow of transition, or rather its incipient failures, as the global media represent countries that embarked on processes of transformation as relapsing and returning to primordial states. This article inquiries into the ways in which artists from two global peripheries – William Kentridge (South Africa) and Dmitry Gutov (Russia) – resist these homogenising discourses by critically engaging with failures of the transitions. A comparative reading of the artists' works from the past decade suggests that they develop a poetics which, drawing on the legacies of absurdism, treats failure as productive opportunity. Approaching the problems of transformation by remembering earlier revolutionary projects and inquiring into their politics of time, these works unravel creative possibilities within what has been deemed failed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

By tracing some of the ways that Michael Bennett's choreographic dramaturgy telescoped, refracted and collapsed the presumed dimensions of musical theatrical space, identity and emotion, this critical rumination listens for the experimental echoes in A Chorus Line. Explicating how A Chorus Line recasts the audition as an especially absurd dramatic scenario, I submit that Michael Bennett re-choreographs theatrical scale - especially through the musical's fractal storytelling and composite characterizations - to magnify the scale, scope and impact of every little story told and every little step danced 'on the line' of A Chorus Line. I contend that A Chorus Line's absurdity lay not only in its dramatization of (paraphrasing Martin Esslin) the metaphysical anguish that defines the entertainer's life but also in how its 'affective absurdism' has emerged as one of A Chorus Line's most enduring, influential yet unexamined legacies for the genre of musical theatre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An attempt has been taken through this topic to fathom the depth of a group of writers' philosophy towards the world inflicted with materialistic pains and human beings therein taking recourse to such an indifferent realm where they are to tolerate and observe any incongruities of life versus world. Taking such an attempt the author has to be in an indifferent position to feel himself being a part of the absurdist world visualized in such pieces as The Trial, Waiting for Godot, The Stranger/The Outsider, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Soldier in an Attic, Tale of Dreams, etc. While scrutinizing the absurdist scenario of the twentieth century, it occurs to me that even after being deprived of any hope and life's being considered meaningless, everyone is getting bound to go with whatever they can see, feel and sense without any complaint like some self-centred and isolated persons. Being stranded in such an indifferent situation where prevails always unrest state of mind, how every frustrated human soul is at least getting a space, created by the very believers of the absurdist world-view, for taking a deep breath to feel its existence along with acclimatizing itself to its survival into this absurdist world, is my concern in this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern drama is still patently viewed as moving from the realistic Ibsen and the naturalistic Strindberg to the socially, politically, and psychologically oriented "problem plays" of the twentieth century (and beyond), fed occasionally by assorted "techniques" from aberrant avant-garde movements. This essay, agrues, by contrast, for a revisionist history of modern drama that would acknowledge the innovative and visionary contributions of "modernism," as linked to the historical and literary avant-garde, be it in the form of expressionism, symbolism, futurism, dada, or surrealism. From the inception of the absurd, moreover, avant-garde drama has certainly not ceased to proliferate. Yet in the late 1960s we entered the era of postmodernism, in which two events occurred to halt the "advance" of avant-garde drama. The first is the embrace by postmodern playwrights of a stylistic pluralism, an eclectic and often selfreflexive interweaving of different styles drawn from different time periods. The second is the deification of postmodern performance through the merging of author and director into a single "superstar." The most significant efforts of the avant-garde do continue to involve the self-conscious exploration of the nature, limits, and possibilities of drama and theater in contemporary society; but the vision of and for the future manifest in such work remains tentative and unclear, it is as though the avant-garde could not overcome the doubt and distrust foisted upon its potential for inspired vision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In its analysis of Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road, the present article aims to establish that, despite the bleakness of the deathscape portrayed, McCarthy nevertheless did not intend for violence to get the final word. Through a discussion of the dialogues of the novel, this article explores to what extent they may indeed be qualified as dialogical. Moreover, examining the instances in which language as communication becomes a problem in light of both the concerns and the mechanisms of playwrights of the absurd Beckett and Pinter, it intends to show that even though the referents of human culture appear to have vanished close to entirely from the face of The Road's earth, sociability and empathy nonetheless manage to survive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In current society the lives and actions of individuals often unfold in organisational settings. This paper explores the human condition in organisations and the intellectual legacy of Albert Camus (1913-1960). Although considered to be an existentialist, Albert Camus distinguishes himself from other existentialists with his special attention to the individual in a world which cannot be known exactly. Moreover, man is living in a world which has no particular concern for the individual and can be considered absurd. Using these thoughts from his essay the Myth of Sisyphus as a framework to explore acting and living in an organisation and reflecting on this framework, we define three implications for moral development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thomas Lanier Williams (1911-1983) was one of America's most distinguished playwrights. As a victim of both The Great Depression and the Second World War, Williams studies human nature, psychological conflicts, tragic emotions and the highest form of poetic drama in his plays. American drama during the 1940's and 50's resort to new theatrical trends along with an experimentation of the American drama, showing the American mind, dilemma, modernisation, capitalism, the shameful truth of the dying romanticism and the ever-degrading human conditions. And Williams's Camino Real is an analysis of the trapped human soul under its own skin, trapped by corruption, conservatism and imagination. A dream allegory, the play explores the path of human journey, the trials and temptations, the ultimate truth and realisation of the human failures, the successful overcoming of one's mistakes, fears, lost dignity, honour and the dramatic return to culture, order and love. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The starting point of this article is the observation that Russian and non-Russian historians of literature assign Andrei Platonov a very special place in Russian culture. This place does not coincide with any of the known developments or periods in this field. Considering works of art, which “belong” to one development or period, not as texts, which imply closed lists of formal and/or semantic features, but as mere phenomena, which show family-similarities in the sense of Wittgenstein, this article reconstructs correspondences of Platonovʼs writing not only with Russian realism, modernism, avant-gardism and socialist realism but also with non-Russian developments as international absurdism and Dutch and German “Neue Sachlichkeit” (“New Objectivity”). The value of Platonovʼs oeuvre can be related to the fact that in an inspiring dialogue it communicated with works of all these developments and periods. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]