Plays within this group are absurd in that they focus not on logical acts, realistic occurrences or traditional character development but on human beings trapped in an incomprehensible world subject to any occurrence, no matter how illogical。 The characters in Absurdist drama are lost and floating in an incomprehensible universe and they abandon rational devices and discursive thought because these approaches are inadequate。 

The Homecoming written by Harold Pinter is one of the representative works of the Theatre of the Absurd。 And since Harold Pinter won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005, his important work The Homecoming has become attractive to the public again。 文献综述

1。2 Significance of the Study

This paper endeavors to analyze the artistic features of the Theatre of the Absurd through the conversations of the characters in Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming。 Previous studies on The Homecoming mainly focus on father and son’s relationship, human nature, family ethics, feminism and so on。 But this paper focuses on the conversations between the characters to show the unique artistic features of the Theatre of the Absurd。

2 Literature Review

2。1 Research on the Theatre of the Absurd

The term “The Theatre of the Absurd”, first seen in the book Theatre de l’absurde written by Martin Esslin in 1962, is the generalization of the works written by playwrights in the 1950s’ in Europe such as Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco and Harold Pinter。 The philosophical basis of the Theatre of the Absurd is existentialism, which denies the significance of human existence and communication between human beings。 Existentialists believe that the world is cruel and cannot be understood。 They have lost faith in the human society, which is the ideological reflection of the reality of the western capitalist society after the Second World War。 

The Theatre of the absurd in the 20th century is the most direct and extreme description of human absurdity in various forms of absurd drama。 In the return of the original essence of drama, human beings once again become the center of the theater。 In the manifestation of drama, the playwrights create the spiritual ritual of the 20th century and makes the modern drama have the characteristics of primitive sympathetic magic, so as to achieve the ritual drama effect of releasing emotion and purifying the soul。 

The playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd refuse to reflect the absurd life in the traditional and rational way like those playwrights of Existentialism, instead, they choose the absurd way to show the existence of absurdity in the society at that time。

The Theatre of the Absurd has the following characteristics in Art:

① It abandons the logicality and coherence in the structure, language and plot。 It is totally against the traditional drama。

② It usually shows the theme in the form of symbol and metaphor。

③ It tries to convey the serious tragic theme in the form of funny comedy。

In the Theater of the Absurd, the world is unbelievable and incomprehensible to people。 People cannot exert any influence on the world and all their efforts for any purposes are in vain。 People cannot communicate with each other。 Human beings live alone in the threatening atmosphere of indifference。 One’s existence is of no value at all。 In a word, man and the world, both of them are absurd。 

It is obvious that this kind of view has its basis。 Famous playwright Eugene Ionesco(1950) explains that it is rather absurd to have no purpose。 When men cut off the relation with their religion, philosophy or even the source of intuition, they will be at a loss because all their behaviors become meaningless, absurd and futile。

The famous British drama theorist and person who gave name to the Theatre of the Absurd Martin Esslin(1962) pointed out that the characteristics of this concept is that it believes those previous real things and unshakable basic concepts have been swept away and after the inspection, they are considered to be worthless, even as children's fantasy。 The American playwright of the Theatre of the Absurd Edward Albee(1960) further explained that the reason why the world is meaningless is that all kinds of structure in the aspect of morality, religion, politics and society which human beings set up for their own “fantasy” have broken down。来*自-优=尔,论:文+网www.youerw.com