The indescribable horror of two bloody world wars in the 20th century gave rise to numerous artistic movements that questioned the validity of science and the discourse of reason and logic to help human beings to make sense of our world. Among these were dadaism, surrealism, and the theater of the absurd. Confronted with the perceived failure of the promise of science, theater practitioners took to staging life unfettered by logic, reason, order, or meaning. How do we act if we think that life has no meaning? Without the scientific method to guide us, what happens to our understanding of how the world around us works and where we fit in? Where do hopelessness and despair lead us as a species? Can we somehow find meaning in an apparently meaningless existence? In this course, we will examine how dramatists in Europe and Latin America have staged these existential conundrums that threaten to undermine centuries of social and scientific "progress." All class work is in English. |