English Literature after the Second World War第二次世界大战以后 重要的英国戏剧流派Theater of the Absurd 荒诞派戏剧Theater of the Absurd came about as a reaction to World War II. It took the basis of existential philosophy and combined it with dramatic elements to create a style of theatre which presented a world which can not be logically explained, life is in one word, ABSURD! Needless to say, this genre of theatre took quite some time to catch on because it used techniques that seemed to be illogical to the theatre world. The plots often strayed from the more traditional episodic structure, and seem to move in a circle, ending the same way it began. The scenery was often unrecognizable, and to make matters worse, the dialogue never seemed to make any sense.Major Absurdist Playwrights 主要荒诞派剧作家Samuel Beckett 撒缪尔·贝克特, Eugene Lonesco 尤金·尤奈斯 库, Harold Pinter 哈罗德·品特Nobel Prize-winner Samuel Beckett has widely influenced the course of 20th century literature. The impact of his plays (Waiting for Godot, Endgame), novels they open the door to numerous invisible guests, gradual- ly fill the stage with chairs, one for each supposed guest. The message is presented by a mute orator, who has been motionless when the old couple commit suicide, plunging themselves through the windows into the water below. The orator. faces the rows of empty chairs, attempting to speak, using sign language, desperate to make himself understood; then from his throat come moans and groans and the sort of harsh sounds made by deaf mutes 聋哑人.Rhinoceros 犀牛Berenger is an ordinary city man. He is unmoved by the news that rhinoceros are at large on the streets. This results a quarrel between him dissatisfied is perhaps more accurate. The group not only expressed discontent with the staid, hypocritical insti- tutions of English society—the so-called Establishment—but betrayed disillusionment with itself and with its own achieve- ments. Included among the angry young men were the play- wrights John Osborne and Arnold Wesker & the novelists Kingsley Amis, John Braine, John Wain, & Alan Sillitoe. In the 1960s these writers turned to more individualized themes and were no longer considered a group. More “Angry Young Men”: 愤怒的青年(其他人) Arnold Wesker , Kingsley Amis & John BraineJohn Osborne 约翰·奥斯本（1929-1994）John Osborne -- the manwho turned anger into artJohn Osborne changed the face of British Theatre. His play “Look Back in Anger“ was the turning point in postwar Britishtheatre. He was an 'angry youngman' who spent his happiest yearsin Shropshire. John Osborne 约翰·奥斯本（1929-1994）British playwright & film Producer whose Look Back in Anger (1956) ushered in a new movement in British drama & made him known as the first of the “Angry Young Men” The son of a commercial artist and a barmaid, Osborne used insurance money from his father's death in 1941 for a boarding- school education at Belmont College, Devon. Look Back in Anger：《愤怒的回顾》 Its Importance 重要性The first production of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger in 1956 provoked a major controversy. There were those, like the leading critic Kenneth Tynan, who saw it as the first totally original play of a new generation. There were others who hated both it and the world that Osborne was showing them. But even these critics agreed that the play, written in just one month, marked a new voice on the British stage.Look Back in Anger: the storyThe three-act play takes place in a one-bedroom flat in the Midlands. Jimmy Porter, lower middle-class, university-educated, lives with his wife Alison, the daughter of a retired Colonel in the British Army in India. His friend Cliff Lewis, who helps Jimmy run a sweet stall, lives with them. Jimmy, intellectually restless & dissatisfied, reads the papers, argues and taunts his friends over their acceptance of the world around them. He rages to the point of violence, reserving much of his anger for Alison's friends and family. The situation is exacerbated by the arrival of Helena, an actress friend of Alison's from school. Appalled at what she finds, Helena calls Alison's father to take her away from the flat. He arrives to take Alison away when Jimmy is visiting a friend’s mother. As soon as she has gone, Helena moves in with Jimmy. Alison returns to visit, having lost Jimmy's baby. Helena can no longer stand living with Jimmy and leaves. Finally Alison returns to Jimmy and his angry life.Look Back in Anger （1956）《愤怒的回顾》《愤怒的回顾》部分剧照和电影海报。