“The "poetic avant-garde" relies on fantasy and dream reality as much as the Theatre of the Absurd does; it also disregards such traditional axioms as that of the basic unity and consistency of each character or the need for a plot.”

—  Martin Esslin

Introduction : The absurdity of the Absurd
The Theatre of the Absurd (1961)
Context: The "poetic avant-garde" relies on fantasy and dream reality as much as the Theatre of the Absurd does; it also disregards such traditional axioms as that of the basic unity and consistency of each character or the need for a plot. Yet basically the "poetic avant-garde" represents a different mood; it is more lyrical, and far less violent and grotesque. Even more important is its different attitude toward language: the "poetic avant-garde" relies to a far greater extent on consciously "poetic" speech; it aspires to plays that are in effect poems, images composed of a rich web of verbal associations.
The Theatre of the Absurd, on the other hand, tends toward a radical devaluation of language, toward a poetry that is to emerge from the concrete and objectified images of the stage itself. The element of language still plays an important part in this conception, but what happens on the stage transcends, and often contradicts, the words spoken by the characters. In Ionesco's The Chairs, for example, the poetic content of a powerfully poetic play does not lie in the banal words that are uttered but in the fact that they are spoken to an ever-growing number of empty chairs.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The "poetic avant-garde" relies on fantasy and dream reality as much as the Theatre of the Absurd does; it also disrega…" by Martin Esslin?
Martin Esslin photo
Martin Esslin 11
Playwright, theatre critic, scholar 1918–2002

Related quotes

Dana Gioia photo

“The time has probably come to admit that the notion of an avant-garde is no longer useful in discussing contemporary literature. How can there be an avant-garde without a mainstream? Avant-garde de quoi? one must ask. Establishment institutions — universities, museums, foundations, commercial galleries, even the state — have embraced the idea of experimental art for so long that the avant-garde is now a safely domesticated concept, just another traditional style.”

Dana Gioia (1950) American writer

"Notes Toward a New Bohemia," http://www.danagioia.net/essays/ebohemia.htm transcript of a 1993 talk at the Poet's House, New York City, published in Poetry Flash (November/December 1993) and revised for publication in Grantmakers in the Arts (Spring 1994)
Essays

Brian Greene photo

“Physicists are more like avant-garde composers, willing to bend traditional rules and brush the edge of acceptability in the search for solutions.”

Brian Greene book The Elegant Universe

The Elegant Universe : Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory (1999), p. 271
Context: Physicists are more like avant-garde composers, willing to bend traditional rules and brush the edge of acceptability in the search for solutions. Mathematicians are more like classical composers, typically working within a much tighter framework, reluctant to go to the next step until all previous ones have been established with due rigor. Each approach has its advantages as well as drawbacks; each provides a unique outlet for creative discovery. Like modern and classical music, it’s not that one approach is right and the other wrong – the methods one chooses to use are largely a matter of taste and training.

Lin Yutang photo

“Reality - Dreams = Animal Being
Reality + Dreams = A Heart-Ache (usually called Idealism)
Reality + Humor = Realism (also called Conservatism)
Dreams - Humor = Fanaticism
Dreams + Humor = Fantasy
Reality + Dreams + Humor = Wisdom”

Lin Yutang book The Importance of Living

Source: The Importance of Living

F. Scott Fitzgerald photo

“Character is plot, plot is character.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

“According to my attempts to understand them, reality is systematically denied in the Copenhagen interpretation in order to circumvent consistency problems (such as “Is the electron really a wave or a particle?”). If there is no reality, one does not need a consistent description!”

H. Dieter Zeh (1932–2018) German physicist

referring to his attempts to understand Copenhagen interpretation proponents Nonlocality versus nonreality http://www.fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/323, FQXi (Foundational Questions in Physics & Cosmology) Blog (2008)

Bertrand Russell photo

“To choose one sock from each of infinitely many pairs of socks requires the Axiom of Choice, but for shoes the Axiom is not needed.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

As quoted in Williams' Weighing the Odds: A Course in Probability and Statistics (2001), p. 498
Attributed from posthumous publications

Andy Warhol photo

“Fantasy love is much better than Reality Love.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist
Lauryn Hill photo

“See fantasy is what people want, but reality is what they need. And I just retired from the fantasy part.”

Lauryn Hill (1975) American singer, rapper, songwriter, record producer, actress
James Patterson photo

“It was like meeting someone out of your dreams, or fantasies, or a beloved character from a favorite book.”

James Patterson book Sundays at Tiffany's

Source: Sundays at Tiffany's

David Hume photo

“His character does not appear more extraordinary and unusual by the mixture of so much absurdity with so much penetration, than by his tempering such violent ambition, and such enraged fanaticism with so much regard to justice and humanity.”

David Hume The History of England

Volume III, Chapter LXI; referring to Oliver Cromwell
The History of England (1754-62)

Related topics