A Study Of The Space In Edward Albee’s Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Plays

In the 1950s, Edward Albee’s maiden play The Zoo Story made him well-known. Then, he has been exerting great efforts in his writing and in the subsequent years, presented his audience with one pleasant play after another. Up to now, he has received three Pulitzer Prizes for Drama--A Delicate Balance (1967), Seascape (1975) and Three Tall Women (1994). And he has gained such an important position as some literary giants like Eugene O’Neil, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams have enjoyed in American theatre. From his works, we can see Albee shows his great concerns and contemplation over human being’s destiny, interpersonal relations, life and death.Edward W. Soja’s Space Theory has divided space into three categories, the Firstspace, the Secondspace and the Thirdspace. According to him, the Firstspace is the objective and material space which can be perceived; the Secondspace is the spiritual and ideal space which can be imagined; and the Thirdspace is a material, spiritual and social space with openness and infinite possibilities.This thesis takes Albee’s three Pulitzer-Prize-winning plays as the study texts, trying to reveal the spatial message and disclose Albee’s true intention of the creation hidden in the works by using Edward Soja’s Space Theory, especially his Thirdspace Theory.At first, the thesis gives a brief overview of Albee’s life and works, introduces mainly his three Pulitzer-Prize-Winning plays, and at the same time makes a comprehensive literature review on the research done so far both at home and abroad. Then, it conducts a detailed introduction to the Space Theory, paying a particular attention to Henri Lefebvre’s Space Theory and its successor Edward W. Soja’s Space Theory. Thirdly, it mainly analyzes the dual space reflected in Albee’s A Delicate Balance, Seascape and Three Tall Women. By exploring the perceivable Firstspace and the imagined Secondspace hidden in Albee’s plays, this part attempts to reveal the spiritual loss of his major characters. At last, the thesis focuses on the exploration of the Thirdspace reflected in Albee’s A Delicate Balance, Seascape and Three Tall Women. It explores "the Aleph"-like Thirdspace which is with openness and limitless possibilities in Albee’s plays by probing the Heterotopias, the symbolic space, the beyond space together with the dramatic form, dramatic characters and the dramatic time. Based on the analysis above, the thesis comes to a conclusion: superficially, Albee’s plays are filled with the dark side, the confusion and obsessiveness of the characters, but there are some positive ideas hidden deeply in them. With an infinite open style of space representation, he encourages people to face the difficulties, to catch every chance to make a difference, and move on bravely and fearlessly.