TCLC 38: 339-415
- "The Theatre of the Absurd," 340-47
- major plays & playwrights, 347-58
- and the concept of the absurd, 358-86
- theatrical techniques, 386-94
- predecessors of, 394-402
- influence of, 402-13
Excerpts and full text of articles and essays providing critical discussion of authors and their works.
- Children’s Literature Review
- Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism
- Contemporary Literary Criticism
- Dictionary of Literary Biography
- Drama Criticism
- Literature Criticism 1400-1800
- Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism
- Poetry Criticism
- Shakespearean Criticism (see index information)
- Short Story Criticism
- Something About the Authors
- Twentieth Century Literary Criticism
Critical analyses and brief plot summaries of the most studied works in the history of literature: long fiction, short fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama.
- Censorship
- Critical Survey of Drama
- Critical Survey of Long Fiction
- Critical Survey of Mystery & Detective Fiction
- Critical Survey of Poetry
- Critical Survey of Short Fiction
- Cyclopedia of Literary Characters
- Cyclopedia of Literary Places
- Cyclopedia of World Authors
- Dictionary of World Biography (The Ancient World, The Middle Ages, The Renaissance, The 17th & 18th Centuries, The 19th Century, The 20th Century)
- Encyclopedia of the Ancient World
- Ethics
- Guide to Literary Masters & Their Works
- Identities & Issues in Literature
- Magill's Book Reviews
- Magill's Choice: Holocaust Literature
- Magill's Guide to Science Fiction & Fantasy Literature
- Magill's History Annual, 1983-1985
- Magill's Literary Annuals, 1977+
- Magill's Survey of American Literature
- Magill's Survey of World Literature
- Masterplots
- Masterplots II: African American Literature
- Masterplots II: American Fiction
- Masterplots II: British & Commonwealth Fiction
- Masterplots II: Christian Literature
- Masterplots II: Drama
- Masterplots II: European Fiction
- Masterplots II: Juvenile & Young Adult Biography
- Masterplots II: Juvenile & Young Adult Fiction
- Masterplots II: Juvenile & Young Adult Literature
- Masterplots II: Nonfiction
- Masterplots II: Poetry
- Masterplots II: Short Story
- Masterplots II: Women's Literature
- Masterplots II: World Fiction
- Sixties in America
Call Number: UCF ONLINE General Collection -- PN1861.B43 2015
"Michael Y. Bennett's accessible Introduction explains the complex, multidimensional nature of the works and writers associated with the absurd - a label placed upon a number of writers who revolted against traditional theatre and literature in both similar and widely different ways. Setting the movement in its historical, intellectual and cultural contexts, Bennett provides an in-depth overview of absurdism and its key figures in theatre and literature, from Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter to Tom Stoppard."
Call Number: UCF ONLINE General Collection -- PN1861.B44 2011
NOTE: Online access is limited regarding total users.
"Fifty years after the publication of Martin Esslin's The Theatre of the Absurd , which suggests that 'absurd' plays purport the meaninglessness of life, this book uses the works of five major playwrights of the 1950s to provide a timely reassessment of one of the most important theatre 'movements' of the 20th century."
Notable Plays
Theatre of the Absurd and Other Mid-century Work
Samuel Beckett – Waiting for Godot, Play, Krapp’s Last Tape, Footfalls, Not I, Catastrophe, Happy Days, Endgame, What Where
Albert Camus – The Just Assassins, Caligula
Jean Genet – The Blacks, The Balcony, The Maids, Deathwatch, The Screens
Václav Havel – The Memorandum, The Garden Party, The Increased Difficulty of Concentration
Eugène Ionesco – The Bald Soprano, Rhinoceros, The Lesson, Macbett
Federico García Lorca – The House of Bernarda Alba, Blood Wedding, Yerma
Sławomir Mrożek – The Police, Strip-tease, Tango, Love in the Crimea
Harold Pinter – The Caretaker, The Birthday Party, The Homecoming, The Dumb Waiter, Old Times, Betrayal
Edward Albee – The Zoo Story, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Seascape, A Delicate Balance
Call Number: UCF ONLINE General Collection -- PR6003.E282 H3 1980
Suffused with tenderness, lucidity and humor, this Samuel Beckett play is a comedy in pure, music-hall style. Legendary actress, Irene Worth, stars as Winnie, an optimist who deep down senses she has little to feel "happy" about. Irene Worth gives a tour-de-force performance as she chatters incessantly and cheerily on a variety of subjects. Winnie never allows a day to pass without looking her best and hoping for better. Worth portrays Winnie as the embodiment of humankind's nobler virtues: wise, majestic and committed to her conviction that "this will have been a happy day."
Filmed a year before the author's death in 1989, these special studio recordings of Eh Joe, Footfalls, and Rockaby are brief, concentrated, and pared down to the absolute essentials, even to the exculusion of color are the definitive productions, made in collaboration with the Nobel Laureate himself and featuring his favorite and most-trusted actress, Billie Whitelaw. Together these plays explore the themes of consciousness and self-image in Beckett's inimitale style.
Call Number: UCF Main Library General Collection -- PQ2617.O6 R5 1960
ch4ck availability of print edition
In Rhinoceros, as in his earlier plays, Ionesco startles audiences with a world that invariably erupts in explosive laughter and nightmare anxiety. A rhinoceros suddenly appears in a small town, tramping through its peaceful streets. Soon there are two, then three, until the "movement" is universal: a transformation of average citizens into beasts, as they learn to move with the times. Finally, only one man remains. "I'm the last man left, and I'm staying that way until the end. I'm not capitulating!" Rhinoceros is a commentary on the absurdity of the human condition made tolerable only by self-delusion. It shows us the struggle of the individual to maintain integrity and identity alone in a world where all others have succumbed to the "beauty" of brute force, natural energy, and mindlessness. Includes (1) Rhinoceros; (2) The Leader; and (3) The Future Is in Eggs or It Takes All Sorts to Make a World
Call Number: UCF Main Library General Collection -- PQ6613.A763 Y413 2007
ch4ck availability of print edition
Methuen Drama student edition: Text in English; play in Spanish with English translation on opposite pages.
Yerma (meaning 'Barren') is one of three tragic plays about peasants and rural life that make up Lorca's 'rural trilogy'. It is possibly Lorca's harshest play following a woman's Herculean struggle against the curse of infertility. The woman's barrenness becomes a metaphor for her marriage in a traditional society that denies women sexual or social equality. Her desperate desire for a child drives her to commit a terrible crime at the end of the play.
Call Number: UCF Main Library General Collection -- PN2080 .M49 1993
NOTE: Online access is limited to a specific number of users. ch4ck availability of print edition
Includes monologues with commentary from: Absent Friends (1974) Alan Ayckbourn -- After the Fall (1964) Arthur Miller -- Antigone (1944) Jean Anouilh -- The Balcony (1956) Jean Genet -- ""The Bald Prima Donna (1950) Eugene Ionesco -- Blithe Spirit (1941) Noel Coward -- Blues for Mister Charlie (1964) James Baldwin -- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) Tennessee Williams -- Cloud Nine (1979) Caryl Churchill -- The Cocktail Party (1950) T. S. Eliot -- A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1967) Peter Nichols -- East (1975) Steven Berkoff -- Faith Healer (1979) Brian Friel -- The Glass Menagerie (1945) Tennessee Williams -- The Good Person of Sichuan (1939-40) Bertolt Brecht -- Happy Days (1961) Samuel Beckett -- Hello and Goodbye (1965) Athol Fugard -- The House of Blue Leaves (1971) John Guare -- Huis Clos [In Camera/No Exit] (1944) Jean-Paul Sartre -- Icarus's Mother (1965) Sam Shepard -- The Iceman Cometh (1940) Eugene O'Neill -- Jumpers (1972) Tom Stoppard -- La Turista (1967) Sam Shepard -- The Lark (1953) Jean Anouilh -- Long Day's Journey into Night (1940) Eugene O'Neill -- Look Back in Anger (1956) John Osborne -- The Maids (1947) Jean Genet -- The Misunderstanding (1944) Albert Camus -- Napoli Milionaria (1945) Eduardo de Filippo -- Old Times (1971) Harold Pinter -- Otherwise Engaged (1975) Simon Gray -- The Plough and the Stars (1926) Sean O'Casey -- Pygmalion (1912) Bernard Shaw -- The Room (1960) Harold Pinter -- Roots (1959) Arnold Wesker -- The Ruffian on the Stair (1964) Joe Orton -- The Rules of the Game (1919) Luigi Pirandello -- The Ruling Class (1968) Peter Barnes -- Saint Joan (1924) Bernard Shaw -- Saved (1965) Edward Bond -- The Sea (1973) Edward Bond -- Sexual Perversity in Chicago (1974) David Mamet -- Spring Awakening (1892) Frank Wedekind -- A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) Tennessee Williams -- Summer and Smoke (1948) Tennessee Williams -- Ubu Rex (1896) Alfred Jarry -- A View from the Bridge (1955) Arthur Miller -- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1962) Edward Albee