Which of the following writers are associated with the Theatre of the Absurd?
Show Hint
- Harold Pinter
- Edward Albee
- John Osborne
- Eugene O'Neill
The Correct Option is A, B
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Define Theatre of the Absurd
The Theatre of the Absurd (term popularized by Martin Esslin, 1960s) refers to post-WWII plays highlighting existentialism, meaninglessness, and illogical structures. Key dramatists include Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Harold Pinter, and Edward Albee.
Step 2: Evaluate options
(A) Harold Pinter — yes, absurdist dramatist, known for The Birthday Party, The Dumb Waiter, famous for "Pinteresque" pauses. ✔
(B) Edward Albee — yes, though American, he is associated with absurdist drama; plays like The Zoo Story show absurdist traits. ✔
(C) John Osborne — key figure in "Angry Young Men" movement; wrote Look Back in Anger. Not Absurdist, but realist/working-class concerns. ✘
(D) Eugene O'Neill — early 20th century American dramatist (Long Day's Journey Into Night); expressionist, not Absurdist. ✘
\[
\boxed{\text{Absurdist dramatists here: (A) Harold Pinter and (B) Edward Albee}}
\]
Top GATE XH-C2 English Literature Questions
- Who published the novel The Bell Jar under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas?
- In which collection did Walt Whitman's poem "Song of Myself" first appear?
- Who wrote the introduction to Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali?
- Identify the title of the poem in which the following lines appear:
"He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint
For in everything he did he served the greater community." - Identify the point of view used in the following passage: "You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning. But here you are, and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, though the details are fuzzy."
Top GATE XH-C2 Dramatic Literature Questions
Top GATE XH-C2 Questions
- "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is a/an____.
- Match the following pairs of fictional characters with the author who created them:
a Phileas Fogg and Jean Passepartout i William Shakespeare b Don Quixote and Sancho Panza ii Jules Verne c Candide and Pangloss iii Miguel de Cervantes d Dogberry and Verges iv Voltaire - Which one of the following is a famous detective character created by Edgar Allan Poe?
- "The horror! The horror!" - these are the last words of_____.
- Eric Arthur Blair was born in Motihari, Bihar. He went on to become famous as an author of a dystopian work which introduced the terms 'Newspeak', 'Thoughtcrime', and 'Doublespeak'. He wrote under the pseudonym______.