Arts Studies and Criticism

This essay aims to do research on one of the most important modern drama movements in Europe — the Theater of Absurd, through doing the background research at first and then comparing works of the same type and period including Nobel Prize work. The authors want more people to get to appreciate the art form of Absurd Drama which precisely reveals very serious social issues fundamentally but through vivid and very comic form. That’s quite novel and classic! After researching on the wide ranges of drama movements in the same period like Environmental Theater, Theater of the Oppressed (TO), Epic Theater, and even Music theater like Off-Off Broadway, the authors finally chose to conduct in-depth research on the Absurd Theater. The background research includes but not limited to the period from1950s to the late 1980s in Europe, and elaborates the development of absurd theory in detail. This paper is represented by Ionesco’s famous drama — Rhinoceros, conducting research from the perspectives of forms, themes, literature technologies and moral to show readers what absurd drama is and its characteristics. Different histories can lead to different forms of literary works including drama. We should always constantly explore new forms of Drama which is extremely interesting and challenging!