1、English Literature after the Second World War,第二次世界大戰(zhàn)以后 重要的英國戲劇流派,Theater of the Absurd 荒誕派戲劇,Theater of the Absurd came about as a reaction to World War II. It took the basis of existential philosophy and combined it with dramatic elements to create a style of theatre which presented a world which

2、can not be logically explained, life is in one word, ABSURD! Needless to say, this genre of theatre took quite some time to catch on because it used techniques that seemed to be illogical to the theatre world. The plots often strayed from the more traditional episodic structure, and seem to move in

3、a circle, ending the same way it began. The scenery was often unrecognizable, and to make matters worse, the dialogue never seemed to make any sense.,Major Absurdist Playwrights 主要荒誕派劇作家 Samuel Beckett 撒繆爾貝克特, Eugene Lonesco 尤金尤奈斯庫, Harold Pinter 哈羅德品特,Nobel Prize-winner Samuel Beckett has widely in

4、fluenced the course of 20th century literature. The impact of his plays (Waiting for Godot, Endgame), novels they open the door to numerous invisible guests, gradual- ly fill the stage with chairs, one for each supposed guest. The message is presented by a mute orator, who has been motionless when t

5、he old couple commit suicide, plunging themselves through the windows into the water below. The orator. faces the rows of empty chairs, attempting to speak, using sign language, desperate to make himself understood; then from his throat come moans and groans and the sort of harsh sounds made by deaf

6、 mutes 聾啞人.,Rhinoceros 犀牛,Berenger is an ordinary city man. He is unmoved by the news that rhinoceros are at large on the streets. This results a quarrel between him dissatisfied is perhaps more accurate. The group not only expressed discontent with the staid, hypocritical insti- tutions of English

7、societythe so-called Establishmentbut betrayed disillusionment with itself and with its own achieve- ments. Included among the angry young men were the play- wrights John Osborne and Arnold Wesker & the novelists Kingsley Amis, John Braine, John Wain, & Alan Sillitoe. In the 1960s these writers turn

8、ed to more individualized themes and were no longer considered a group.,More “Angry Young Men”: 憤怒的青年(其他人)Arnold Wesker , Kingsley Amis & John Braine,John Osborne 約翰奧斯本（1929-1994）,John Osborne - the man who turned anger into art John Osborne changed the face of British Theatre. His play Look Back in

9、 Anger was the turning point in postwar British theatre. He was an angry young man who spent his happiest years in Shropshire.,John Osborne 約翰奧斯本（1929-1994）,British playwright & film Producer whose Look Back in Anger (1956) ushered in a new movement in British drama & made him known as the first of

10、the “Angry Young Men” The son of a commercial artist and a barmaid, Osborne used insurance money from his fathers death in 1941 for a boarding- school education at Belmont College, Devon.,Look Back in Anger：憤怒的回顧Its Importance 重要性,The first production of John Osbornes Look Back in Anger in 1956 prov

11、oked a major controversy. There were those, like the leading critic Kenneth Tynan, who saw it as the first totally original play of a new generation. There were others who hated both it and the world that Osborne was showing them. But even these critics agreed that the play, written in just one mont

12、h, marked a new voice on the British stage.,Look Back in Anger: the story,The three-act play takes place in a one-bedroom flat in the Midlands. Jimmy Porter, lower middle-class, university-educated, lives with his wife Alison, the daughter of a retired Colonel in the British Army in India. His frien

13、d Cliff Lewis, who helps Jimmy run a sweet stall, lives with them. Jimmy, intellectually restless & dissatisfied, reads the papers, argues and taunts his friends over their acceptance of the world around them. He rages to the point of violence, reserving much of his anger for Alisons friends and family. The situation is exacerbated by the arrival of Helena, an actress friend of Alisons from school. Appalled at what she finds, Helena calls Alisons father to take her away from the flat. He arrives to take Alison away when Jimmy is visiting a friends mother. As soon as she has gone, Helena moves