Cynicism and the Absurd in Albert Camus and Samuel Beckett

Iván Nyusztay is an Associate Professor at the Department of English Studies, ELTE University of Budapest. He is the author of two books on drama: Myth, Telos, Identity: The Tragic Schema in Greek and Shakespearean Drama (2002) and Configurations of Identity in Absurd Drama: Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard (2010).

• Series Editor’s PrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroduction: The Absurd as Response to the ‘Most Constant Temptation’ of CynicismPART I: Reconfiguring the Absurd: Towards a Philosophy and Aesthetics of Fluidity1. From Cynicism to the Absurd2. Grotesque Humour and Satirical LaughterPART II. Containing and Abandoning Post-Traumatic Cynicism in Camus’s and Beckett’s Absurd and Absurdist Literary Works3. The Short ProseA. Grotesque Depersonalization and Liquefaction: Camus, The StrangerB. Death in Life and the Non-Cynical Turn: Beckett, First Love4. The NovelA. The Wartime Crisis of Meaning and the Rudimentary Stage of the Model of Two Sisyphuses in Beckett’s WattB. Communal Revolt and Cynicism Abandoned: Camus, The Plague5. The DramaA. Satirical Inflation and the Absurd: Camus, CaligulaB. Satirical Deflation and the Absurd: Beckett’s Godot, Happy Days and EndgameConclusion: Trauma, Humour, FluidityWorks CitedIndex