Theatre Of The Absurd Research Articles

ABSURDITY IN PUTU WIJAYA’S SHORT PLAY

Short play known as Drama Pendek (Drapen) is the latest form of Putu Wijaya's work. The play only ranges from two to twelve pages. From the number of pages, it is assumed that the drapen performance will only last five to ten minutes. Although only a short duration, Putu Wijaya is consistent with the aesthetic concept of terror. This concept, if traced further, is a derivative of the concept of the theater of the absurd. To see the possibility of performing the drapen, an analysis of the structure and texture of randomly selected drapes will be carried out. The analysis is carried out with a theoretical approach that sees the terror in the structure and texture in a drafted text. It is hoped that the results will show whether the short play meets the rules of dramaturgy to be performed on stage Key words: Short play, Theater of the Absurd, Putu Wijaya

Experimentation and the absurd in two plays by Syrian playwright Walīd Ikhlāṣī

ABSTRACT Walīd Ikhlāṣī (1935–2022) is a modernist Syrian playwright who was part of a broader Arab movement experimenting with the theatre of the absurd. His experimental writings are based on a fundamental refusal to accept ready-made values – literary, cultural, or philosophical. In this experimentation he developed a truly unique style, set apart from his contemporaries. Examining two one-act plays: Ṭubūl al-iʿdām al-ʿasharah (The Ten Drums of Execution) and al-Mutʿah 21 (Pleasure 21), both published in 1965, this paper looks at his use of juxtaposition to create a productive ambiguity, and how this ambiguity is underscored in the works using author comments/stage direction, and varied techniques of dialogue. In both works, we find the tensions created by his experimentation bring forth a powerful sense of despair and injustice.

An Arendtian Reading of Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros and Liwaa Yazji’s Goats through the Notions of Totalitarianism and The Banality of Evil

This paper is a comparative literary study of two absurd plays: Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros (1959) and Liwaa Yazji’s Goats (2018). It traces their points of overlap with and departure from the tenets of the Theatre of the Absurd; illustrates the theoretical framework of Hannah Arendt’s notions, as introduced in The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) and Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963); and attempts to answer these questions: How does Totalitarianism use propaganda, terror, and religion to brainwash the minds of the Romanians and Syrian? How does Arendt’s banality of evil explain conformity and loyalty? Both playwrights employ elements of distanciation: Ionesco uses metatheatre and Yazji uses videos, screens, camera gaze, crowds, and six goats on the stage to incite spectators to think and break the illusion. The paper also entails a recognition of ‘animality’ and offers to conceptualize this term vis a vis totalitarianism and the Theatre of the Absurd.

Archetypical images of a child and a cultural hero in the playwrights of Edward Franklin Albee and Sławomir Mrożek in the light of the generational problem

The article examines the place of archetypal images of a child and a cultural hero in the ideological and imaginative system of theatre of the absurd of Edward Franklin Albee and Sławomir Mrożek. It is stated that in Albee’s dramas ("The Sandpbox", "The American Dream", "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf", "A Delicate Balance") and Mrożek’s dramas ("Tango", "A Happy Event", "Racket-Baby") the archetypal images of a divine and demonic ("unruly") child, outlined in Carl Gustav Jung's psychoanalytic philosophy, enter into ambivalent relations. The thanatological motifs which accompany this archetypal duality testify to the distorted image of the future in the consciousness of twentieth-century human, so that the image of a child in the drama of the absurd becomes a reflection of the general process of dehumanisation in modern society as well as in the family. The archetype of the cultural hero, according to the world mythological tradition, embodies the ideas of individuation and transformation of a child growing into adulthood. However, through the presentation of grotesque and parodic images of children and young men in the work of playwrights, the understanding of the child archetype as a potential cultural hero does not include the idea of civilisational progress as the "futureness" of the world, but rather reflects the eschatological scenario of the world history. The problem of family relations, which captures the generational conflict in its carnivalised version (the inverted relations between the "older" and the "younger"), is an indicator of the social absurdity represented in the plays. The comparative analysis of the plays in the light of the ambivalent archetype of "divine child" – "unruly child" contributes to the identification of national and socio-cultural specificity of the conflict of "fathers and sons". It is concluded that the collective experience of the generation to which Albee and Mrożek belonged to determines the pessimistic vision of the future by both playwrights.

Social Condition Reflected in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot

This paper discusses the absurd character types that exist in Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot. Vladimir, Estragon, Pozzo and Lucky are the four contradictory yet dependent characters in the play. The absurd characters reflect the social condition of the time, post – World War II. The characters are pictured waiting for the completion of the war in the hope that it will come. Their fate can be changed instantly, the same as the state of war. Besides discussing the characters in the drama, this paper also discusses the characteristics of the language used by the characters. The language used is unreasonable, not in accordance with what is said or how they act; it is called “verbal nonsense”. The interpretations of the dialogue among the characters in the play will give a better picture of each character and how they can be related to societal conditions.
 Keywords: Theater of Absurd, Character Types, Post-War, Social Condition

Man’s Continuous Search for Salvation in Beckett’s plays: From Arrival in Waiting For Godot to Departure in Endgame

Following an existential point of view, the absurd theatre depicts ideas that seem to have illogical explanation. As a case in point, Samuel Beckett is the most eminent of the absurdist playwrights, in a sense that he deals with the dullness of routine, the futility of human action, and humans' inability to communicate. Beckett who has experienced so much of life became a man with a prophetic vision, and the creator of new concepts of modern theatre. His journey continues after writing Waiting for Godot to write Endgame. Both plays share the same view that man is living in a world without a clue and placing in a universe with no purpose.
 This study provides a framework of Beckett’s two absurd plays Waiting for Godot and Endgame elucidated under the umbrella of both existentialism and absurd theatre. It is divided into two sections and a conclusion. Section one deals with the genre of these two plays and the philosophy of existentialism which has its effect on the writings of the modern age. Also, it explains the main features of the absurd theatre and how the modern tragi-comedy is used synonymously with absurd theatre. Section two deals with the game of waiting in Waiting for Godot, and the final stage of life in Endgame, and how Endgame is depicted as the third act of Wating for Godot. It also shows the idea of seeking salvation which dominates the two plays but in different ways. The last part of this study is the conclusion which sums up the findings of the study.

Eugène Ionesco’nun Gergedanlar Oyununda Gergedanlaşma

Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco (1959) presents the gradual literal and metaphorical transformation process of characters into rhinoceroses under the strong influence of the dominant ideology throughout the play. Ionesco’s play discusses and highlights the significance of maintaining one’s own individuality instead of mere adherence to a manipulative ideology through the struggle of the main character, Berenger. Berenger is in this respect different than other characters who adopt the represented ideology that does not tolerate plurality and diversity of opinions. The more characters turn into rhinoceroses, the stronger Berenger’s feeling of solitude and loneliness gets, which increases his alienation from his society. This study will in this regard give brief relevant information about the Theatre of the Absurd; then briefly introduce Eugène Ionesco as a playwright; and finally discuss the literal and metaphorical transformation process of the characters into rhinoceroses, which stands for the gradual loss of their individuality with specific references from the primary source and relevant secondary sources.

The Image of the 'Saviour' in Waiting for Godot and Islam: A Thematic Comparative Study

The idea of the 'saviour' has been an interesting subject matter for many specialists for a very long time. Its interset can be attributed to many reasons, probably the most important one is religion. Allusions to the saviour seem to be present in almost all religions, heavenly or earthly. It has been noted that even the pagan tribes believe in the existence of a saviour as a part of their cultures and traditions. Another reason stems back to man's weakness as a living creature and his constant need for a natural, or supernatural, power to save him from misery, oppression, injustice, ...etc. The saviour could be a superbeing or human being. For instance, Beowulf is looked at as a saviour, and King Arthur was, for a long time, thought to be a saviour that one day he will come and save his people, and many legends have been written in this respect.
 The aim of this study is to highlight the 'saviour' as a concept in Samuel Becket's play Waiting for Godot and explore its interpretations as tackled by two 'schools': The Theatre of the Absurd and Existentialism, then compare it to the concept of the saviour from Islam's point of view.
 The study falls into four chapters. Chapter one is devoted to outline the 'saviour' as a term, the belief in the presence of the saviour in general, and how the idea of the saviour is looked at by different writers and philosophers. Chapter two highlights the principles of the Theatre of the Absurd that are concerned with the 'saviour' and how those principles are reflected in the play. It also shows how 'waiting' becomes adherent to the word 'saviour'. Thereafter, the existentialism philosophy is examined since the principles of the Theatre of the Absurd are closely related to the it. Chapter three is spared for showing the concept of the saviour in Islam in general, and in the Shia sect in specific.
 In order to accomplish this aim, some Quranic verses and Hadiths (reports of Prophet Mohamed's teachings collected after His death) are presented as examples to show the belief in the existence of the Saviour (Mahdi) in Islam.
 Finally, the study ends with chapter four which, in the light of the research findings, compares the image of the saviour in Waiting for Godot and Islam.

Досвід абсурду: екзистенціалістська парадигма та парадигма театру абсурду (на прикладі твору С. Бекета "Не я")

This article circles around the phenomenon of absurdity and absurd which appears to be greatly elaborated by Albert Camus and Theatre of the Absurd. The article reflects mainly upon Becket's dramatic monologue "Not I", which might be characterized as a sort of missing link between two forms of absurd. The style of Albert Camus puts emphasis on the inner experience extrapolated by means of the author. In this sense, the feeling of despair and existential crisis, typical for existentialism in general, brings into existence the absurdity of being as such. In comparison with that, the manner, in which Theatre of the Absurd presents current states of things, organizes the comic dimension of a given situation. To put it another way, Theatre of the Absurd sets up living intersubjectivity, which is a sense-formative precondition of the laughter, and dynamic omnipresence of the inner experience literally declared on the scene. Becket's "Not I" deploys, on the one hand, the existentialistic understanding of human beings, and, on the other, the theatrical representation injected with intersubjectivity. The article takes into account Deleuzian approach towards cinematography in order to conceptualize Becket's play. The notion of affection-image, which is taken from Deleuze, illustrates the structure and essentially the nature of images taking place in "Not I". Becket draws special attention to the image of the voice with regard to audial metaphors, which the main heroine uses during all the time of self-enunciation. Behind the words that she speaks there is an implicit trauma, which is unknown to the contemplators of the performance. It is noteworthy to admit that the organization of the play makes visible only the mouth of the heroine whereas everything remains in the shadows. Deleuzian affection-image deals with annihilated spatial-temporal coordinates and absolutization of the face (faceification). The quality of metaphors in the monologue and the decoration of space establish the phenomenon of absurdity in Becket's "Not I".

Halfway house: Mohan Rakesh’s search for completeness

Halfway House, or Adhe Adhure in Hindi, is one of the most poignant plays depicting the urban middle-class family. Rakesh brings forth the transition of values in the the-then society with utmost excellence and shows the changing dynamics between a man and woman’s equation. Written in the year 1969, Halfway House talks about how hollow and shallow the existence of the bourgeois class were. Rakesh picks up several traits from the Theatre of Absurd (Ionesco, Brecht, Beckett etc.) and the Theatre of Idea (Camus, Sartre, Shaw etc.) and applies the ideologies in this play. Not only him but other playwrights of this era also used this mechanism to portray the important enquiry about one’s existentialism. The characters in this play follow the same path and remain incomplete until the end. Rakesh draws them as fragmented pieces of their own predicaments, and the women suffer way more than men. The corrosiveness of a crumbling family comes out through its members, and Rakesh makes it happen by using concerns or elements of naturalistic, realistic, absurd and existentialistic. The characters are so life-like that they represent the very basic emotions of human like that of crudity, ugliness, corruption, vulgarity etc. As the audience watch the play, they realise Rakesh’s desire and longing for a fresh and new morality. Like many of his other contemporaries, he deals with subjects about sex, love and violence. The frustration and anger playing in the minds of the youth of the post-1960 era come up in many plays. The revolutionary ideas are contradictory to established values and conventional norms. Despite the disappointing tone, Rakesh’s love for humanity and commitment to values can be understood in his plays.

Aristotelesyen Tragedya Çerçevesinde David Mamet’in “Oleanna” Oyunun İncelenmesi

Oleanna, the controversial play by David Mamet, has generally been reviewed by the critics within the context of addressing the issues of sexual harassment, political correctness and academic education. Mamet’s plays have also been considered as a combination of absurd theatre and traditional realism. However, Mamet has dismissed all of these approaches and stated that Oleanna is an Aristotelian tragedy, depicting the unequal power relationship between a professor and his pupil against the institutional background of higher education. In this study, by pursuing this description of Mamet, Oleanna is reviewed based on the determining elements of the plot of Aristotelian tragedy. Within this context and as per Aristotle's definition of tragedy, the protagonist of the play, Professor John, and the plot are examined in terms of hubris, hamartia, peripeteia, anagnorisis and katharsis concepts; arguing the notion that John is a modern tragic hero and Oleanna is a modern Aristotelian tragedy.

A Postmodern Allegory: Absurdity in Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party

The Birthday Party is an absurdist play written by the British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor Harold Pinter. He is one of the most celebrated dramatists of the Theatre of the Absurd. The objective of the paper is to examine how Pinter’s play The Birthday Party incorporates the elements of an absurdist play. The paper also tries to explain how the fragility of language to communicate is being portrayed through the play.

The reflections of the theme of ‘Loneliness’ in the Theatre of the Absurd on Tom Stoppard’s A Separate Peace and Aziz Nesin’s Çiçu

Düşünsel tabanını dünya savaşları sonrasında ortaya çıkan tinsel bunalımdan kaynaklanan kötümserlik ile Varoluşçuluk ve Hiççilik gibi düşünce dizgelerinin etkisi altında oluşturan Absürd Tiyatro anlayışının asal izleği yaşamın usa aykırılığıdır. Absürd Tiyatro anlayışı, dünya savaşları sonrasında ortaya çıkan kültürel kargaşa ortamının bir sonucu olarak, yaşadığı dünyaya ‘yabancılaşan’ ve ‘yalnızlaşan’ insanın durumunu yansıtmayı amaçlar. Absürd Tiyatro, ‘yalnızlaşan’ insanın durumunu sahneye taşımak için farklı arayışlar içerisinde olan oyun yazarları tarafından benimsenmiş ve toplumlarının deneyimlediği sosyo-politik-ekonomik koşullar bağlamında biçimlenmiştir. Diğer bir ifadeyle, kendi içinde belirlenmiş ilke ve kuralları olmayan, ‘izm’ ya da akım özelliği gösteren herhangi bir anlayışa bağlı olmayan Absürd Tiyatroyu, oyun yazarları kendi tarzlarında yorumlamış ve kendi toplumsal olgularıyla harmanlayarak okuyucuya/izleyiciye sunmuşlardır. Bu bağlamda; bu çalışma, Tom Stoppard’ın Bir Ayrı Huzur (A Separate Peace) (1969) adlı oyununu ve Aziz Nesin’in Çiçu (1969) adlı oyununu Absürd Tiyatro anlayışı ile ele almaktadır. Dramatik yaşamları ve ürettikleri eklektik tiyatro yapıtları bakımından çağdaş tiyatroda ses getiren Stoppard ve Nesin’in, adı geçen oyunlarda modern bireyin kimliğini, seçimlerini ve ‘yalnızlığını’ derinlemesine tartıştığı görülmektedir. 20.yüzyılın ikinci yarısında, farklı coğrafyalarda benzer kaygılarla eserler üreten Stoppard ve Nesin’in kendilerine özgü biçemler geliştirdiği ve bu biçemlerin Absürd Tiyatro geleneği ile benzeştiği vurgulanmaktadır. Bu çalışmada, oyunlardaki baş kişilerin ifadeleri ve biyografik bilgilerine dayanarak, ‘yalnızlığın’ bir çözüm, arzulanan bir olgu, olarak görüldüğü ve bu çözümün kişilere veya kurumlara bağlanmayı reddetme ve modern yaşamın getirdiği sorumluklardan kaçınma yolunda yattığı ortaya konulmaktadır.

Hope in Hopelessness: Appreciating “Waiting” as an Essential Device in Selected Plays of Beckett and Ahmad

This paper aims to explore and appreciate “waiting” as an essential device in selected plays of Beckett and Ahmad. They defy traditions and conventions of plays by inventing their own innovative and individualistic manner of manipulating structural patterns to shape the Absurd dramas. This paper focuses on the incessant incidence of the “waiting” in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Ahmad’s The Thing, and analyzes how important this waiting matters to the characters. The essential device of ‘waiting for’ and the open possibility of a change is what keeps hope alive. Through the journey of the characters, the playwrights focus on how man can confront and survive against the hostility of surroundings through ‘waiting.’ This is narrative research that follows descriptive-cum analytical method, and the textual references are given as evidence to support theargument of this study. It is found that the reality of the situation in which the absurd character appears is a psychological reality expressed in images that are the outward projection of states of their mind. That is why the Theatre of the Absurd can be considered an image of the human being’s inner world. It presents a truer picture of reality itself, reality as grasped by an individual that helps the characters as well as the audience to comprehend the harsh reality that life is full of qualms through their absurd conditions.

Trying to Understand Camino Real: an Adornian analysis of Tennessee Williams’s play

My essay focuses on one of Tennessee Williams's least critically analyzed play and probably his less staged one, Camino Real (1953.) The play has often been interpreted as an expressionist and/or an existentialist play. Moreover, it was mostly rejected by critics and audiences alike when he was first performed in the 1950s, mostly due to its unrealistic quality. Remarkably, some of the attributes that the critics used to describe the play are the same used to describe absurdist dramas: "anti-drama", "anti-theatre.” The reason for the failed success of Camino Real lies precisely, in my opinion, in the lack of recognition of the absurdist element in it: the "organized meaninglessness" (Adorno, 120) that allowed Williams to represent the irrational quality of the modern human condition. Using as critical tool Theodor Adorno’s essay “Trying to Understand Endgame ”, my aim will be to show that the play is successful in taking on the themes and techniques of absurdist theatre in the manner of Samuel Beckett. In "Trying to Understand Endgame " Adorno mentions Camino Real and identifies the motif of rubbish as central in both Beckett's Endgame and Camino Real underlying in this way a sort of continuity between the two plays. In my contribution I am going to analyze Camino Real using some of the tools Adorno applies to his study of Endgame and I will try to show the characteristics that in my opinion make Camino Real an absurdist play.

Dreaming of Godot

In his study of Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Martin Esslin argued that although inherent meaning might exist in the universe, we are incapable of understanding it because of our intrinsic limitations.1 Like Beckett's play, dreams invite boundless speculation about their origin and meaning. Psychiatrist Allan Hobson long ago called the oneiric protoconsciousness of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep a primordial state of brain organisation,2 to which we revert every night, as to our own theatre of the absurd.

Stanislavski and The Theatre of The Absurd

ABSTRACT This paper is based on a lecture/workshop I gave at the S-Word Symposium, held at the University of Malta in April 2019. The original lecture comprised of a PowerPoint presentation, outlining some of the most common problems faced by my BA Hons Acting and Actor Musician students at Rose Bruford College at the beginning of their second year of training. During this initial block of work in semester one they find themselves grappling with a variety of texts written by those playwrights, grouped together by Martin Esslin in his seminal study of 1961, as the key representatives of what he famously termed The Theatre of The Absurd. 1 Opening with an introductory summation of my developing practice at RBC, followed by an outline of some of the theory involved – and some contextual framing relating to the philosophical underpinning that runs through Esslin’s interpretation of these plays 2 – I worked with a trio of Theatre Studies students from the University of Malta, in an attempt to demonstrate some of the key ideas I have been exploring in practice over the past few years. My premise is that, while an attempt to apply certain foundational aspects of Stanislavski’s “system” to these Absurdist texts is clearly problematic – particularly any attempt to create a psychologically coherent through-line-of-action, rooted in a detailed backstory or character biography – other Stanislavskian concepts, such as the magic if for example, when utilized discretely, can still prove useful. Key terminology is written in italics.

Perceiving Reality through Absurdity: a Prime Projection in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Ahmad’s the Thing

This paper offers an in-depth analysis of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Ahmad’s The Thing with the focus on the sense of craving to go on and to endure the existence, the ultimate reality of human life. Between these two extraordinary playwrights of Absurd Theatre, one is from the West, and the other is from the East. So, a meticulous survey on these two selected plays unfolds trajectories of convergence. This research will show that though the two plays are of two opposite continents, they are primly projecting the same theme of realizing reality through absurdity using the same structural techniques of absurd drama. The researchers find it remarkable that despite an outwardly hopeless fate, both the plays express the human spirit of continuing life through endurance and invite the audience to win the absurdity of life by enduring it. Such is reality, and,in both the plays, this realization of accepting reality comes through absurdity. However, it is narrative research that follows the descriptive-cum analytical method, and the relevant textual references are given as evidence to support the argument of this study.

Le Nouveau Théâtre: 1946–2017. Études réunies par Jeanyves Guérin

Appearing front and centre in the nouveau théâtre were bewildered characters, struggling to make sense of pointless destruction in an increasingly unrecognizable world. Suffice it to say that, half a century after they were written, the plays from this period resonate with us. The most comprehensive study of the nouveau théâtre to date, this volume contains not only essays, but also a highly detailed chronology of authors and plays from the period, and illuminating inventories of the plays published by Gallimard, those staged at the Festival d’Avignon, and the languages into which they have been translated. In his introductory chapter, volume editor Jeanyves Guérin identifies Jacques Audiberti’s Quoat-quoat, staged in 1946, as the first nouveau théâtre work. Examined across the chapters are other plays that appeared the same year, by Jean Genet, Henri Pichette, and Michel de Ghelderode, who are analysed alongside Arthur Adamov, Fernando Arrabal, Samuel Beckett, François Billetdoux, Roland Dubillard, Georges Schéhadé, Jean Tardieu, Jean Vauthier, and Romain Weingarten. Throughout, illuminating and nuanced comparisons between the various authors’ approaches to theatrical innovation are revealed by the book’s ten contributors. Marguerite Duras and Nathalie Sarraute are mentioned cursorily: the nouveau théâtre, which peaked during the 1950s and 1960s, is conspicuously dominated by men. Like its parallel ‘movements’ the nouveau cinema and nouveau roman, the nouveau théâtre, variously termed ‘anti-théâtre’ (Georges Neveux), ‘absurdist theatre’ (Martin Esslin), or ‘théâtre nouveau’ (Michel Corvin and Geneviève Serreau), ruptured conventional aesthetic codes. Many of the chapters in the book describe how playwrights revolutionized theatre by exploding dramaturgical practices such as linear plot, rational argument, comprehensible meaning, recognizable character, intelligible time, or coherent space, and instead presented disassembled figures in shattered landscapes. But the collection provides more than a mere accessible, informative account of playwriting styles and registers of the period. A number of chapters offer particularly original perspectives, notably Hélène Laplace-Claverie’s study of the féerie — the anti-realist use of spectacular, playful, or childlike language and effects; Gilles Ernst’s investigation into the representation of violent death, the figure of the afterlife, and the relationship between death and sex; and Nathalie Macé’s enquiry into the prevalence of the character of the author across nouveau théâtre plays, of which she provides an impressive inventory. The book’s enquiry covers a period that leads up to shortly before its publication date, and more contemporary authors such as Bernard-Marie Koltès, Jean-Luc Lagarce, and Wajdi Mouawad are mentioned, albeit briefly, as successors. A wide-ranging chapter on the legacy of the nouveau théâtre today, might have included some more contemporary playwrights from France, for instance Noëlle Renaude and Magali Mougel, and indeed from further afield, for example Caryl Churchill and debbie tucker green, currently the UK’s two most artistically original and politically potent playwrights, who were all inevitably influenced by the eruption of theatrical invention taking place in mid-twentieth-century France. This expansion of the field of the nouveau théâtre into today’s theatrical panorama would have offered the added advantage of redressing its gender imbalance.

Social Part-Time Employment: Soviet Theater of the Absurd

Introduction. The article is devoted to the Soviet propaganda campaign of 1931–1934, which was called “sotssovmestitelstvo” (social part-time employment). To date, there are no studies on this issue. Methods and materials. The author uses the following methods: historical-genetic, archival-heuristic, source studies, classification, historical description and actualization. The sources for the research were archival documents, periodical press materials, normative legal acts and propaganda works of the first half of the 1930s. Analysis. Social part-time employment meant that workers after completing a shift at the enterprise would have to voluntarily and free of charge perform certain functions in public institutions. The theoretical basis of the campaign was the idea of Lenin about the possibility of the permanent and direct participation of the proletariat in the management of the state. The ideologists of the campaign tried to create the illusion of mass participation of workers “from the machine”. For this purpose directors of plants were obliged to send part-time employees to state institutions, and heads of institutions – to create working conditions for them. The authorities declared the thesis on the advantage of the working class over the intelligentsia and its high moral qualities, which it a priori has due to its social origin. It was assumed that these qualities will allow workers to identify shortcomings in the work of state institutions and make proposals for the improvement of the state apparatus. The author of the publication shows how the campaign began, passed and ended, what its real results were. Results. According to the author, the following circumstances were the reason for the campaign: the economic situation forced the authorities to prohibit mass mobilization of workers from production to participate in various campaigns of party-Soviet bodies, but at the same time partySoviet ideologists were not going to abandon the thesis of the participation of workers in public administration. The campaign could not collapse completely and was forgotten for many years.