Comedy’s Double Negation of Meaning in Post-war European Theater
Through selected close readings from plays by Arthur Adamov and Samuel Beckett, this article examines how language is herein used against itself to expose the impossibility of meaninglessness. By replacing significance with mere surface sounds, language emerges from these plays as a carrier of unexp...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"
2021-10-01
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| Series: | Sillages Critiques |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/11455 |
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| author | Anna Street |
| author_facet | Anna Street |
| author_sort | Anna Street |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Through selected close readings from plays by Arthur Adamov and Samuel Beckett, this article examines how language is herein used against itself to expose the impossibility of meaninglessness. By replacing significance with mere surface sounds, language emerges from these plays as a carrier of unexpected—and inescapable—meaning. Tracing a series of comic reversal techniques common to both Adamov and Beckett, famously grouped together under the moniker Theater of the Absurd, the author demonstrates how the attempt to deprive words of sense-making is repetitiously usurped by other sensory elements which doggedly invest the striving for senselessness with profound ambiguity, against all odds. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a00e5d23841f4751b8c906fed0fbcb8a |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1272-3819 1969-6302 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2021-10-01 |
| publisher | Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sillages Critiques |
| spelling | doaj-art-a00e5d23841f4751b8c906fed0fbcb8a2025-01-30T13:47:30ZengCentre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"Sillages Critiques1272-38191969-63022021-10-013010.4000/sillagescritiques.11455Comedy’s Double Negation of Meaning in Post-war European TheaterAnna StreetThrough selected close readings from plays by Arthur Adamov and Samuel Beckett, this article examines how language is herein used against itself to expose the impossibility of meaninglessness. By replacing significance with mere surface sounds, language emerges from these plays as a carrier of unexpected—and inescapable—meaning. Tracing a series of comic reversal techniques common to both Adamov and Beckett, famously grouped together under the moniker Theater of the Absurd, the author demonstrates how the attempt to deprive words of sense-making is repetitiously usurped by other sensory elements which doggedly invest the striving for senselessness with profound ambiguity, against all odds.https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/11455comicSamuel BeckettcomedyArthur AdamovTheatre of the Absurd |
| spellingShingle | Anna Street Comedy’s Double Negation of Meaning in Post-war European Theater Sillages Critiques comic Samuel Beckett comedy Arthur Adamov Theatre of the Absurd |
| title | Comedy’s Double Negation of Meaning in Post-war European Theater |
| title_full | Comedy’s Double Negation of Meaning in Post-war European Theater |
| title_fullStr | Comedy’s Double Negation of Meaning in Post-war European Theater |
| title_full_unstemmed | Comedy’s Double Negation of Meaning in Post-war European Theater |
| title_short | Comedy’s Double Negation of Meaning in Post-war European Theater |
| title_sort | comedy s double negation of meaning in post war european theater |
| topic | comic Samuel Beckett comedy Arthur Adamov Theatre of the Absurd |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/11455 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT annastreet comedysdoublenegationofmeaninginpostwareuropeantheater |