Understanding Absurdist Drama

By Prof.Rahul Chaturvedi | Banaras Hindu University

Learners enrolled: 456 | Exam registration: 20

ABOUT THE COURSE:

This eight-week course on Understanding Absurdist Drama probes into the philosophical and aesthetic aspects of the Absurdist theatre, a dramaturgical response to the existential despair and disillusionment humanity was grappling with in the aftermath of the two world wars and the nuclear/atomic threat. It critically reexamines the pioneering plays of Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Harold Pinter, Jean Genet, Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Arthur Adamov, Edward Albee, Tom Stoppard, Badal Sircar and Jon Fosse whose experimental dramas staged the existential angst, absurdity of human life, and emptiness of language with fragmented plots, surreal imagery, and avant-garde theatre practices. The course delves deeper into the theoretical origins and thematic aspects of the theatre of the absurd, briefly focusing on philosophers such as St. Augustine, Descartes, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus etc. to discuss classics like Waiting for Godot, Endgame, The Chairs, Rhinoceros, The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Maids, Ping-Pong, The Zoo Story, Travesty, Evam Indrajeet, Someone is Going to Come Home and some more major absurdist plays. This course shall be extremely useful for students of literature, philosophy and theatre studies, as well as anyone interested in understanding the meaning and purpose of life.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: Undergraduate/Postgraduate/Ph.D. Students of English
Programme/Early career faculty/anyone interested in understanding the meaning and purpose of life

PREREQUISITES: None

Summary

Course Status :	Ongoing
Course Type :	Core
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	8 weeks
Category :	Arts
Credit Points :	2
Level :	Undergraduate/Postgraduate
Start Date :	17 Feb 2025
End Date :	11 Apr 2025
Enrollment Ends :	17 Feb 2025
Exam Registration Ends :	28 Feb 2025
Exam Date :	25 Apr 2025 IST

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

Week 1: Introducing Absurdist Drama: Philosophical Roots and Theatrical Contexts

Lesson 1: Introducing Absurdist Drama

Lesson 2: Philosophical Antecedents of the Absurd: Kierkegaard and Sartre

Lesson 3: Philosophical Antecedents of the Absurd: Albert Camus

Lessons 4-5: Avant-garde Drama

Week 2: Nothing Happens Twice: Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot

Lesson 1: Samuel Beckett: A General Introduction

Lesson 2: Decoding Waiting for Godot: Reading the Play – 1 (Nothing happens)

Lesson 3: Decoding Waiting for Godot: Reading the Play – 2 (Lucky's Think)

Lesson 4: Decoding Waiting for Godot: Reading the Play – 3 (Nothing happens twice)

Week 3: Closing Acts: Beckett's Endgame and Krapp's Last Tape

Lessons 1-2: Endgame: Texts and Contexts

Lesson 3: Krapp's Last Tape: Texts and Contexts

Lesson 4: Beckett's Metaphysics

Lesson 5: Beckett's Dramaturgy

Week 4: The Ionesco Effect: Eugène Ionesco and the Absurdity of Existence

Lesson 1: Eugene Ionesco and his Comic Non-Sense in The Bald Soprano

Lesson 2: The Chairs: Metaphysics of Nothingness

Lesson 3: Ionesco's Rhinoceros: Reflections of Pachydermous Absurdity

Lesson 4: Anti-Theatre of Eugène Ionesco

Week 5: Pinteresque Worlds: Harold Pinter and the Comedy of Menace

Lesson 1: Pinter and His Plays: A Stage, a Man and a Door (The Room)

Lesson 2: The Birthday Party: Anxiety of Existence

Lesson 3: The Birthday Party: An Allegory of a Failed Revolt

Lesson 4: The Caretaker: Searching for a Home

Lesson 5: Pinter as Playwright

Week 6: Rebels of the Stage: Genet, Sartre, Camus and Adamov

Lesson 1: Jean Genet's The Maids: A Maze of Mirrors

Lesson 2: The House of Illusions: Genet's The Balcony

Lesson 3: "Hell is Other People": Sartre's No Exit

Lesson 4: "Men die and are not happy": Albert Camus' Caligula

Lesson 5: In Search of Total Theatre: Arthur Adamov

Week 7: Absurd Encounters: The Theatrical Worlds of Tom Stoppard and Edward Albee

Lesson 1: Rebel of the stage: Edward Albee (The Zoo Story)

Lesson 2: Why Not Love Animals? Edward Albee's The Goat

Lesson 3: Playing the Play: Stoppardian Metatheatre (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead)

Lesson 4: Art or Politics: Stoppard's Travesties

Week 8: Cultural Crossroads: Badal Sircar and Jon Fosse

Lesson 1: The Indian Absurdist: Badal Sircar (Evam Indrajeet)

Lesson 2: "Alone together": The Plays of Jon Fosse (Someone is Going to Come)

Lesson 3: "I Sing My Song": Fosse's The Guitar Man

Lesson 4: Concluding Remarks

Books and references

Primary Sources

Beckett, Samuel. The Complete Dramatic Works. Faber and Faber, 2006.
Ionesco, Eugène. Rhinoceros, and Other Plays. Translated by Derek Prouse, Grove Press, 1960.
Pinter, Harold. The Birthday Party, and The Room: Two Plays. Grove Press, 1968.
Pinter, Harold. The Essential Pinter. Grove Press, 2006.
Adamov, Arthur. Ping-Pong: A Play in Two Parts. United States, Grove Press, 1959.
Genet, Jean. The Maids. United Kingdom, Faber & Faber, Limited, 1999.
Albee, Edward. The Zoo Story and Other Plays. United Kingdom, Penguin, 1995..
Stoppard, Tom. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. United States, Grove Atlantic, 2007.
Adamov, Arthur. Ping-Pong. Translated by Richard Howard, Grove Press, 1963.
Stoppard, Tom. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Grove Press, 1994.
Sircar, Badal. Evam Indrajit. India, Oxford University Press, 1974.
Fosse, Jon, and Muinzer, Louis. Fosse: Plays One: Someone is Going to Come Home; The Name; The Guitar Man; The Child. United Kingdom, Bloomsbury Academic, 2002.

Secondary Sources

Esslin, Martin. The Theatre of the Absurd. United Kingdom, Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.
Bennett, Michael Y. The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre and Literature of the Absurd. N.p., Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Bennett, M. Reassessing the Theatre of the Absurd: Camus, Beckett, Ionesco, Genet, and Pinter. United Kingdom, Palgrave Macmillan US, 2011.
Hinchliffe, Arnold P. The Absurd. United Kingdom, Taylor & Francis, 2017.
Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus. India, Double9 Books Llp, 2024.
Cohn, Ruby. Just Play: Beckett's Theater. United States, Princeton University Press, 2014.

Instructor bio

Prof.Rahul Chaturvedi

Banaras Hindu University

Rahul Chaturvedi is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India. He holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from BHU, where his thesis focused on postmodernist narratives in select Indian fiction. His academic interests include Indian English Literature, literature and existentialism, and Translation. Dr. Chaturvedi has an extensive academic and research background, having received numerous prestigious fellowships and grants, including the Indian Institute of Advanced Study Associateship (2024), the Indian Council of Philosophical Research Grant (2024), and the Shastri Conference and Lecture Series Grant (2024). He has been a visiting scholar at institutions such as the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (2019) and has held research fellowships under the UGC's Junior (2007) and Senior Research Fellowship (2007-2010) programs. He has coedited a notable book, Hero and Hero-Worship: Fandom in Modern India (2020), and contributed chapters to prominent publications like The Routledge Encyclopedia of Indian Writing in English (2023). His scholarly articles have appeared in various academic journals, with recent papers exploring topics like biopiracy, Bhasha literature, and censorship. Dr. Chaturvedi has also made significant contributions to e-content development, such as his modules on The Tree of Man for IGNOU and on Charlie Chaplin's autobiography for Netaji Subhas Open University.

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.

The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).

Date and Time of Exams: April 25, 2025 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.

Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.

The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.

Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 6 assignments out of the total 8 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

Please note that assignments encompass all types (including quizzes, programming tasks, and essay submissions) available in the specific week.

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of INI and BHU.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- INI team

SWAYAM Helpline / Support