A Study On The Elements Of Absurdist Drama In Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?has long left readers in bewilderment with its realistic cover yet anti-theatre nature.This thesis tries to explore whether this play should be classified into absurdist drama so that the themes of absurdist drama Albee tries to convey through absurdist techniques can be sorted out.Firstly,drawing on theories concerning techniques of absurdist drama,its absurdity is probed centering on two major techniques,incongruity and black humor mainly clarified by J.L.Styan,Harold Bloom and Lisa Colleta.This study incorporates humor production into the study of its absurdity in the hope of providing a new light to the study of this text.Albee presents absurdity not to encourage game spirit toward life but to pour bitter satire upon society under comic vein.Secondly,the major themes of absurdist drama are also covered to quest this play's absurdity.The theme of alienation manifests the absurd situation and the theme of nihilism reflects the characters' response toward absurdity in life.Through the discussion of its elements of absurdist drama,this play's position as a play of the absurd is ensured.Meanwhile,Albee's ultimate aim of delineating absurdity in Who is Afraid of Virginia Woolf that has not been resolved by previous researchers is also brought out: he echos European absurdist drama to make an observation of absurd situation of modern men and their nihilistic response.Nevertheless,the absurd situation in America has its own soil-materialism in the1960 s,which lays the basic foundation for the rise of Albee's absurdist drama.Presenting absurdity does not necessarily advocate nihilism but warn people of its danger.In this case,Albee does not follow European absurdists' embrace of nihilism.Instead,he has developed the connotation of absurdist drama under particular American context.