A Critique on Nazism: A Study of The Dog Beneath the Skin and Rhinoceros
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Keywords:
Poetic Drama, Absurd Drama, Nazism, Fantasy, Animal Image, ResistanceAbstract
This paper looks at English Poetic Drama and its influence on Absurd Drama, in its evocation of anti-totalitarian structure of power in Europe between the Inter-War period. The plays of Auden & Isherwood are examined to analyse their use of fantasy, animal imagery to critique the rise of Nazism. A Comparative reading of Ionesco’s use of fantasy and animal image to depict ideological transformation of people at any given time, is undertaken to compare and contrast the two major theatre traditions of Poetic Drama and Absurd Drama. Ionesco had subsequently commented that he was depicting Nazification of a country in his play Rhinoceros. The specific, historical markers and ideological standpoint of Auden & Isherwood’s plays are juxtaposed to an ideologically non-committed representation of fear and herd mindset through fantasy in Ionesco’s play. The paper looks at the thirties to sixties of the 20th Century as reflected in the plays of the three playwrights under study.
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Auden, W.H. & Isherwood, Christopher. The Dog Beneath the Skin or Where is Francis?.1935; London: Faber & Faber, 1958.
Auden, W. H. & Isherwood, Christopher. On the Frontier. 1938; London, Faber & Faber, 1958.
Ionesce, Eugene. Rhinoceros.tr. Derek Prouse. Middlesex: Penguin, 1962.
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Hoggart, Richard. Auden An Introduction, Essays. London: Chatto & Windus, 1965.
Ionesco, Eugene. Notes and Counter Notes: Writings on the Theatre. tr. Donald Watson. London: John Calder, 1964.
Ionesco, Eugene. Present Past Present: A Personal Memoir. Tr. Helen r. Lane. New York: Grove Press, 1971.
Mendelson, Edward ed. The English Auden: Poems, Essays and Dramatic Writings 1927-1939. London: Faber & Faber, 1988.
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Neighbuhr, Ursula. ‘Memories of the 1940s’ in W. H. Auden A tribute. ed. Stephen Spender. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1975.
Spender, Stephen. The Thirties and After: Poetry, Politics, People (1933-75). London: Macmillan, 1978.
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