UGC NET ENGLISH - Literary Movements
Literary Movements Literature constantly evolves as new movements emerge to speak to the concerns of different groups of people and historical periods. Literary Movements and their Periods Absurd theatre (1930–1970): It is a movement that responded to the seeming illogicality and purposelessness of human life in works marked by a lack of clear narrative, understandable psychological motives, or emotional catharsis. Critic Martin Esslin coined the term in his 1960 essay “Theatre of the Absurd.” Albert Camus uses the term in his 1942 essay, “The Myth of Sisyphus”. His philosophy that life is inherently without meaning is illustrated in his work The Myth of Sisyphus. The Absurd in these plays takes the form of man’s reaction to a world apparently without meaning, and or man as a puppet controlled or menaced by invisible outside forces. This style of writing was first popularized by Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting for Godot published in 1952. Playwrights commonly associat...