（英语语言文学专业论文）论爱德华·阿尔比早期戏剧的荒诞性.pdf

iii 论爱德华阿尔比早期戏剧的荒诞性 论爱德华阿尔比早期戏剧的荒诞性 研究生：芦天华 年级：2005 级 学科专业：英语语言文学 指导老师：刘玉红 研究方向：英美文学 中文摘要中文摘要 爱德华阿尔比（1928 ）是当代美国剧坛上最有影响力的剧作家之一，他的创作 在主题和风格上都得益于欧洲荒诞派剧作家。本论文主要选取阿尔比早期三部代表作品 动物园故事(1958)， 美国梦(1960) 和谁害怕弗吉尼亚伍尔夫?(1960) 来探讨阿尔比的荒诞派写作特色。 荒诞派戏剧是二战后出现在欧洲戏剧舞台上的一种新型流派。自其问世以来，在文学 界颇受关注。但在美国戏剧史上，批判现实主义戏剧却一直占主导地位。直到阿尔比在美 国剧坛上一举成名，荒诞派戏剧才在美国兴起。因此，国内外中早期对荒诞派戏剧研究主 要集中在欧洲荒诞派经典剧作家身上。随着阿尔比声名鹊起，评论界对其关注不断增多。 但目前国内外对阿尔比的研究多在于阐述其作品中人物缺失和家庭暴力等具体细节描写 特色。本文将以荒诞派戏剧特点为依据，通过文本分析，探索阿尔比早期戏剧在主题和形 式上表现出的荒诞派戏剧特色。 本论文共分五章。 第一章为前言，简要介绍阿尔比的生平、作品、影响和文学界对他的评价。 第二章着重介绍荒诞派戏剧的含义，分析其产生的社会背景并指出其创作思想和主要 特点。荒诞派剧作家在抛弃理性的传统戏剧表现手法的同时，采用反传统的荒诞形式来表 现荒诞的现实。 他们的作品共同反映了人类的孤独与异化， 人与人的心理隔绝与无法沟通， 人类生活在幻想的世界中，对现实的惶恐等主题。 第三章主要从主题方面论述阿尔比早期作品中存在的荒诞派戏剧特征。阿尔比的成名 作动物园故事通过两个陌生人的谈话表现人与人的隔绝和难以沟通的主题。在美国 梦中，阿尔比通过一个典型的美国中产阶级家庭着力表现人类的异化。而阿尔比最著名 的剧作谁害怕弗吉尼亚伍尔夫?则运用两对夫妻的谈话表现人类生存的痛苦，精神上 的空虚，尤其是对现实的恐慌。这三部戏剧所展现的主题都是荒诞派戏剧的常见主题。因 此在阿尔比早期作品中可以明显地找到荒诞派戏剧的缩影。 第四章主要从创作手法方面论述阿尔比早期作品中的荒诞派戏剧特征。这将从三个方 面进行阐述：人物、情节和语言。阿尔比戏剧中的人物丧失个性，代表大众。其情节不合 逻辑，采用循环式的结构。语言模糊不清，充满陈词滥调。 第五章为结论部分。从表现的主题和创作手法上看，阿尔比早期戏剧作品体现出荒诞 派戏剧的特点。阿尔比开创了美国荒诞派戏剧流派，对美国戏剧作出了巨大的贡献。 关键词关键词: 阿尔比; 荒诞派戏剧; 主题; 创作手法 iv on absurdity in edward albees early plays postgraduate: lu tianhua grade: 2005 major field of study: english language the theatre of the absurd; theme; technique 论文独创性声明论文独创性声明 本人郑重声明：所提交的学位论文是本人在导师的指导下进行的研究工 作及取得的成果。除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本论文不含其他个人或其 他机构已经发表或撰写过的研究成果。对本文的研究作出重要贡献的个人和 集体，均已在文中以明确方式标明。本人承担本声明的法律责任。 研究生签名： 日期： 论文使用授权声明论文使用授权声明 本人完全了解广西师范大学有关保留、使用学位论文的规定。广西师范 大学、中国科学技术信息研究所、清华大学论文合作部，有权保留本人所送 交学位论文的复印件和电子文档，可以采用影印、缩印或其他复制手段保存 论文。本人电子文档的内容和纸质论文的内容相一致。除在保密期内的保密 论文外，允许论文被查阅和借阅，可以公布（包括刊登）论文的全部或部分 内容。论文的公布（包括刊登）授权广西师范大学学位办办理。 研究生签名： 日期： 导 师签名： 日期： ii acknowledgements the accomplishment of the thesis would not be possible without the help of many people. first and foremost, i want to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, professor liu yuhong. it is because of her valuable advice and remarkable patience that i am able to present my thesis as it is shaped now. during last three years, her inculcation in research，her passion for life and work, and her intellectual rigor have impressed me greatly. i am also indebted to prof. zhang shuning, prof. lu xiaohong, prof. bo jingze, prof. luo yaoguang and prof. huang shixiang, whose thought-provoking courses and lectures have broadened my view. my gratitude is also extended to my good friends. they have always been there to give their support and encouragement. last but not least, i want to thank my parents for their unconditional love and understanding. without their love and devotion, i would not have the courage and confidence to overcome the difficulties that i have encountered. 1 chapter 1 introduction 1.1 edward albees life and literature achievements edward albee (1928 )who emerged on the american theatrical scene in the late 1950s is one of the most outstanding modern american playwrights. he was born in washington d.c. on march 12, 1928. when he was two weeks old, he was adopted by a millionaire couple reed and frances albee. because his foster father was the heir to the famous keith-albee theatre circuit, the young albee was fortunate enough to be familiar with theatre and with many well-known vaudeville celebrities since his childhood. at the age of twenty, after years of expensive schooling at various prestigious schools, albee moved to new york citys greenwich village to join the avant-garde art scene. during that time, he was engaged in a variety of odd jobs including office boy, record salesman and messenger for western union. in 1958 albee finally made the decision to quit his job as a messenger and began his writing career. his debut work, a one-act drama entitled, the zoo story, brought him the first fine success. it won the vernon rice award for outstanding achievement in off-broadway production in 1960. after that, albee was hailed as the leader of a new theatrical movement and as the successor to arthur miller, tennessee williams and eugene oneill. encouraged by the advent of his success, albee went on to write and strengthen his reputation with a series of plays in the following years, including the death of bessie smith (1959), the sandbox (1959) and the american dream (1960) which brought him lola dannunzio award in 1961. in 1962, albee won international acclaim for his play whos afraid of virginia woolf? which received the tony award in that year and other awards. dealing with marital conflict and reconciliation, whos afraid of virginia woolf? was generally considered as a masterpiece. it was transformed overnight “from an off-broadway experimenter into an american classic” (mccarthy 1987: 59). in 1965 the play was adapted into an oscar-winning motion picture by mike nicholas. later albee won pulitzer prizes in 1966 and 1975 for his a delicate balance and seascape respectively. after a lull in the 1980s, albee rebounded in 1994 with three tall women which won him third pulitzer prize, the new york drama critics circle award and outer circle best play award. for his great contribution to american drama, albee received a kennedy center lifetime achievement award in 1996 and was awarded the national medal of arts by president clinton in 1997. in recent years, he has created new plays the play about the baby (1998) and the goat or who is sylvia? (2002) which also receive good responses from the audience. today albee remains active, writing, producing and directing his plays. from the late 1950s to the present, albee has produced a variety of plays that detail the agony and disillusionment of human beings. his twenty-five plays have made up his unique and 2 uncompromising writing style. albee himself describes his work as “an examination of the american scene, an attack on the substitution of artificial things for real values in society, a condemnation of complacency, cruelty, emasculation and vacuity, a stand against the fiction that everything in this slipping land is peachy-keen” (debusscher, 1986:35). albees plays with their intensity, modern themes and experiment in form not only astound critics and audiences but also change the landscape of modern american drama. 1.2 previous studies of edward albees works with his popularity, albee has been attracting more and more critical attention. nowadays, the interpretations of his works become flourishing. at the beginning, studies of his works focus on the influence of his grown-up experience reflected in his works. in edward albee: a study of his plays, ruby cohn provides a detailed analysis of albees plays deriving from his adoptive childhood. he argues that the figure of the adopted child occurs in many of his plays, which has a close connection with albees own experience. in an interpretation of the masculinity, john spurling contrasts the domineering female characters with the weak-minded male figures in albees plays, and concludes that such kind of family deceptions are the imitations of albees adapters. besides background study, many critics turn to an in-depth analysis of albees writing traits. in his the art in the plays of edward albee, john butler evaluates the unseen figures in albees works. in unseen characters, robert byrd also argues for the technique in his plays, saying that “the process of albees play is facilitated by the unseen character whose constant revision can cast strange and confusion lights upon the onstage actions and characters” (1998:180). another hot issue is albees manipulation of language in his plays. in american connectionsoneill, miller, williams and albee, gareth evans argues for albees skillful usage of language. he says “at times albee reminds one of the restoration penchants for drawing attention to the very fabric of language and to the cleverness with which it is spun” (1977:202). gilbert debusscher, in his book edward albee: tradition and renewal, also highly evaluates the language in albees plays. he argues that “albee distinguishes himself from his predecessor by his tight dialogue, his irony verging on sarcasm, his scurrilous vocabulary” (1986:79). the above criticisms reflect a general tone in the overseas study of albee and his works. in china, the study of albee has a short history. the anthology of edward albee, translated by li yunhuang, gives chinese readers an introduction to the works of albee. shen yans poetic narration in the zoo story researches albees play from the perspective of stage image. in the power deconstruction of whos afraid of virginia woolf, jiang yang uses deconstruction theory to analyze albees play. 3 in recent years, the absurdity in albees plays has attracted attention. the theater of the absurd is usually considered to be the great achievement on the european stage with the representatives such as beckett, ionesco, genet and pinter. the previous study of the theater of the absurd from home and abroad mainly concentrates on these european classic playwrights. in fact, as a leader of a new theatrical movement in america, albees style embraces the theater of the absurd. especially his early plays fully demonstrate the characteristics of the theater of the absurd. the zoo story, for example, was at the time of its production billed as the birth of american theater of the absurd. abha singh once said “after waiting for godot, the zoo story was the most audacious of modern plays to be successful on british and american stage” (1998:129). his another play the american dream was appraised as “albees most purely absurdist piece” (foster, 1978:18) as well as “a landmark in american theater because in it albee integrated the discoveries of the french avant-garde theater with american traditional drama” (debusscher, 1986:84). albee, as one of the few american dramatists who has spread the theater of the absurd on the american stage, brings about great impact. because his early plays fully demonstrate his motifs and techniques and become cornerstones for his later plays, this thesis will focus on his three early playsthe zoo story, the american dream and whos afraid of virginia woolf?, and explores the theater of the absurd style in them. 1.3 organization of the thesis the whole thesis is divided into five parts. chapter one is an introduction to albees achievements, literature review and the thesiss central argument. chapter two is an introduction to the theater of the absurd. chapter three illustrates the themes of absurdity in albees three early plays. chapter four discusses the techniques of absurdity in albees early plays. chapter five concludes that albees early plays show significant characteristics of the theatre of the absurd. 4 chapter 2 the theater of the absurd 2.1 meanings of the word “absurd” deriving from the latin word “surdus”, the word “absurd” means “out of harmony”. it is originally used in the music context. the longman dictionary (1992) defines it as “against reason or common sense; clearly false or foolish.” therefore, in common usage, “absurd” simply means the opposition to reason, but literarily it has more profound meanings. in myth of sisyphus, the french philosopher and writer albert camus first uses “absurd” to define the human situation as basically meaningless. he points out that: a world that can be explained even with bad reasons is a familiar world. but, on the other hand, in a universe suddenly divested of illusions and light, man feels an alien, a stranger. his exile is without remedy since he is deprived of the memory of a lost home and the hope of a promising land. this divorce between man and his life, the actor and his setting, is properly the feeling of absurdity. (1955:18) here camus indicates that man is living in a purposeless world where the existence is out of harmony with its surroundings. charles b. harris also gives a similar definition of the absurdity vision as “the belief that we are trapped in a meaningless universe and that neither god nor man, theology nor philosophy can make sense of the human condition” (1971:17). so “absurd” develops from a kind of feeling to a philosophical conception. in the twentieth century it emerges as a school of literature. 2.2 definition of the theater of the absurd the theatre of the absurd is a designation for particular plays written by a number of european playwrights from the late 1940s to the 1960s, as well as the style of theatre which has evolved from their works. it is martin esslin who has coined the term “the theatre of the absurd” in his book by that title to refer to this group of dramatists. esslin considers the works of these playwrights as giving artistic articulation to existential philosophy that life is inherently without meaning. in his book, esslin states that: a term like the theater of the absurd must therefore be understood as a kind of intellectual shorthand for a complex pattern of similarities in approach, method and convention, of shared philosophical and artistic premises, whether 5 conscious or subconscious. they are indeed chiefly concerned with expressing a sense of wonder, of incomprehension, and at times of despair, at the lack of cohesion and meaning that they find in the world. (1965:12) originally, esslin identifies samuel beckett, arthur adamov, eugne ionesco and jean genet as the primary playwrights of the theater of the absurd. later he also includes several other playwrights as the theater of the absurd dramatists, including harold pinter and edward albee. though these dramatists do not regard themselves as a unified school, they do share similar attitudes towards the predicament of man in the universe. in their works, “the semblance of logical construction and the rational linking of idea with idea in an intellectually viable arguments are abandoned, instead the irrationality of experience is transferred to the stage” (taylor, 1966:214). these dramatists seek to demonstrate new awareness of mans position in the universe, to expose the terrible and despairing truth of mans existence. 2.3 social background of the theatre of the absurd the theatre of the absurd was thought to have its origins in the avant-garde experiments in art of the 1920s and 1930s. meanwhile, it was also strongly influenced by the two destructive world wars. the first world war destroyed peoples liberal faith in inevitable social progress. the second world war further shook the validity of any conventions. the two world wars threw people into a world dominated by pain, frustration, malaise and death. from 1945, the horror of living under threat of nuclear annihilation more profoundly showed the total impermanence of any values. the strong sense of human lifes instability, fundamental meaninglessness and arbitrariness shocked people, as esslin expounded that: for many intelligent and sensitive human beings, the world of the mid-twentieth century has lost its meaning and simply ceased to make sense. previously held certainties have dissolved, the firmest foundations for hope and optimism have collapsed. suddenly man sees himself facing with a universe that is both frightening and illogicalin a word, absurd. (1965:13) in the face of an inexplicable universe, people feel anxiety and bewilderment. meanwhile with the rapid progress in science and technology, especially theories of einsteinian relativity and quantum physics, peoples old beliefs were shattered and their conviction that the world was based on order and reason was fundamentally changed. furthermore, nietzsches announcement of “god is dead” leaded to the collapse of traditional values and beliefs. explanations of ultimate 6 truths suddenly became nonsensical illusions. people were desperately in hunger for meanings to rely on. hence, the theater of the absurd emerged as the times requirement. the theatre of the absurd playwrights hoped to shock man out of an existence that became trite, mechanical and complacent. the loss of certainty and well defined system of beliefs and values engendered the appearance of this new theatre. 2.4 main characteristics of the theatre of the absurd to mirror the society and inner world of human beings, the theatre of the absurd playwrights adopt a highly unusual, innovative form. they openly rebel against traditional theatrical devices. their works evoke the absurd “by abandoning logical form, character and dialogue together with realistic illusion” (baldick, 2002:1). though the theatre of the absurd playwrights are different from each other in techniques and styles, they share some commons. firstly, they accept the belief that “mans life is essentially without meaning or purpose and that human beings can not communicate” (hartnoll and found, 2000:2). therefore, the sense of metaphysical anguish at absurdity of human condition becomes the common theme of the theatre of the absurd, which is usually related to the meaninglessness of world, the illusions of life, the alienation and isolation of human beings and the difficulty of communication. for example, samuel becketts famous play waiting for godot conveys the authors pessimistic idea about life that is a hopeless and purposeless waiting. in his the future is in eggs, ionesco illustrates the alienation of human beings by describing a couple who lays and hatches eggs. through exaggerated depictions, the theatre of the absurd playwrights want to make man be aware of the realities of his condition. it is a world of broken images where is full of destruction and sterility of wars. secondly, characters in the theatre of the absurd are often deprived of personalities. they are insignificant and degrading figures. some