Abstract
This study attempts to investigate the process of canonization that Ionesco‟s initial play went through by means of Martin Esslin‟s famous work of theater criticism that labeled the unknown plays of the 50‟s “absurd”. The present study argues that Esslin‟s attempt to canonize these plays under the label of The Theater of the Absurd did not do justice to the ethical perspectives that these plays set forth. My contribution to this topic will be focusing on a postmodern performance by Jean-Luc Lagarce to try to elucidate how his performance of The Bald Soprano challenged the pre-judged attitude of the audience through challenging the previously established beliefs concerning the Theater of the Absurd. The semiotics as the study of the way meaning is created will be drawn on. In The Semiotics of Theater, Erika FischerLichte outlines the internal theatrical code at three different levels of system, norm and speech. Here, the emphasis will be on speech to illuminate the staging by Lagarce and explain how a classic work precipitates postmodern production from within the established canon.
Highlights
As the audience was bewildered by the plays of Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco and Arthur Adamov, Esslin‟s (1961) categorized and defined this avant-garde movement and deciphered the structure and the themes of these plays by asserting that the audience is the better judge these plays not by the standards of traditional plays, but by the new norms set by himself
When a critic or a reviewer introduces a new play or a playwright into the established theatrical mode or when he is inclined toward constructing a new theatrical trend, comparison would serve as a method to find an affiliation between the author(s) and the already established conventions of the theater
Yael Zarhy-Levo (2011: 323) explains that “the critics appear to provide a familiar context from within which to view the new theatrical offering, whether a new playwright‟s work or a new type of drama”. In his attempt to enhance the theatrical reputation of the dramatists that he discussed and in his shaping of new theatrical model had recourse to the known philosophy of existentialism through “The Myth of Sisyphus” by Albert Camus (1955)
Summary
ISSN: 2068-0236 | e-ISSN: 2069-9387 Covered in: Web of Sciences (WOS); EBSCO; ERIH+; Google Scholar; Index Copernicus; Ideas RePeC; Econpapers; Socionet; CEEOL; Ulrich ProQuest; Cabell, Journalseek; Scipio; Philpapers; SHERPA/RoMEO repositories; KVK; WorldCat; CrossRef; CrossCheck
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