TY - CHAP
T1 - SHOW NOT TELL
T2 - The “Absurdist” Theatre of Samuel Beckett
AU - Ben-Zvi, Linda
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 selection and editorial matter, Michael Y. Bennett.
PY - 2024/1/1
Y1 - 2024/1/1
N2 - In his 1961 book The Theatre of the Absurd, Martin Esslin focuses on the plays of Samuel Beckett, in a section entitled “The Search for the Self.” In this chapter, I make a case that Beckett’s early plays Waiting for Godot, Endgame, and Krapp’s Last Tape are influenced, not only by philosophy, psychology, and existentialism, but also the comedy, clown performances and silent films he saw in his youth, forms that grew from the sixteenth-century Commedia dell’ Arte which Esslin mentions but does not expand.
AB - In his 1961 book The Theatre of the Absurd, Martin Esslin focuses on the plays of Samuel Beckett, in a section entitled “The Search for the Self.” In this chapter, I make a case that Beckett’s early plays Waiting for Godot, Endgame, and Krapp’s Last Tape are influenced, not only by philosophy, psychology, and existentialism, but also the comedy, clown performances and silent films he saw in his youth, forms that grew from the sixteenth-century Commedia dell’ Arte which Esslin mentions but does not expand.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85190918432&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.4324/9781003422730-19
DO - 10.4324/9781003422730-19
M3 - ???researchoutput.researchoutputtypes.contributiontobookanthology.chapter???
AN - SCOPUS:85190918432
SN - 9781032188126
SP - 141
EP - 151
BT - The Routledge Companion to Absurdist Literature
PB - Taylor and Francis
ER -