theater of the absurd
1
9.1
- noun
- /ˈθiːətər əv ði əˈsɜːrd/
- Literature
:
teatro del absurdo
- The characters in the theater of the absurd often struggle to find meaning in their chaotic lives.
- watching the theater of the absurd
Examples
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He refuses to sit in the theater of the absurd, watching as others leave, silenced.
Academic text (2018) -
Those several hundred diehards out there spent the night peering through mist at a theater of the absurd.
Blog text (20) -
One described it as "theater of the absurd."
Blog text (21) -
In the ever-darkening theater of the absurd.
Fiction book (1997) -
Some of the players (in what eventually became the theater of the absurd) were as follows:
Blog text (21) -
More Theater of the Absurd fundamentalist nonsense that also happens to be seriously dangerous.
Blog text (21) -
But we don't continue because he is swept along in some conversation about theater of the absurd and talk of Shakespeare and George and Martha.
Fiction book (1991) -
He takes a step back, confronted by the anomaly of himself, anxious that something real may have found its way into his theater of the absurd.
Fiction book (2001) -
THEY CALL IT "THEATER OF THE ABSURD."
-
In a theater of the absurd kind of parody on humanitarianism, goods and services can be purchased by Iraq under the oil-for-food program, but an order can be put on hold by a member of the 15-member Security Council under the sanctions regime.
Academic text (2003)
Synonyms
1
8.9
An art and theatre style that shows human life as meaningless using strange, unreal scenes
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally built from 'theater' + 'of' + 'the' + 'absurd', so a learner who knows 'theater' and 'absurd' can infer it refers to theatre dealing with absurdity or the irrational. Although it is also the label of a specific twentieth-century dramatic movement, the core meaning is directly derivable from the constituents and follows a common cross‑linguistic 'X of Y' pattern.
Etymology
Theater of the absurd is a name critics used for plays after World War II where the stage world feels strange and events do not follow normal sense. Characters repeat lines, talk in odd ways, or wait for things that never come, and that's why the phrase means a kind of drama that shows life as 'meaningless' or 'not making sense'.