외국 연극 및 공연 이론 : [ 고도를 기다리며 ] - 베케트의 부조리 사상과 비희극성의 예 - = Waiting for Godot : An Example of Beckett`s Absurdism and Tragicomic Mode

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

One of intriguing phenomena that dominted European theater in the years after World War II is a tragicomic mode, as we see in works by Ionesco, Genet, Beckett, Pinter, Frisch, and Du¨rrenmatt. We also find a similar trend in the American theater, as in Albee`s plays. Actually, Beckett and Ionesco describe some of their plays as tragicomedy (in Waiting for Godot) or tragic farce (in The Chairs). However, the tragicomic mode in their works is closely related to absurdism, as they represent the Theater of Absurd, whose function was to give dramatic expression to the philosophical notion of the absurd. Yet the emphases of Beckett`s absurdism are somewhat different from those of Albert Camus, who became a major spokesman for the absurd philosophy with the publication of The Myth of Sisyphus in 1942. This essay thus starts with comparing Camus`s absurd notions with Beckett`s and contrasting their philosophical attitudes toward life. And we further discuss a tragicomic mode in Waiting for Godot and Beckett`s dramaturgy, showing how he parodies The Tempest, one of Shakespeare`s tragicomedies, and how he shares the common grounds of Ionesco`s absurdist subject matter and repetitive patterns.