An Analysis Of Edward Albee's Seascape From The Perspective Of Posthumanism

Edward Franklin Albee III(1928-2016)is one of the most significant playwrights in American literature in the second half of the 20 th century.He introduces Theater of the Absurd into America and is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama three times.Albee steps on the stage when American theatre is facing with severe crisis and injected vigor and vitality into American theater through his innovation and experimentation on the narrative form and content of traditional drama.Most of his plays concentrate on family conflicts and social contradiction of American society,and stress the psychological problems and survival crises of modern society.Albee spares no efforts to break through illusion of social prosperity and actively explores the road leading to a harmonious society.Posthumanism is a philosophical and cultural trend which originates in the west in the middle of the 20 th century.With its unique way of thinking,posthumanism rationally reflects and criticizes traditional humanism and positively responds to the modern society of capitalism.Meanwhile this influential cultural trend also provides a new perspective for literary creation and study with its unique worldview.Through studies of Edward Albee's works,it can be found that almost all his plays contain the thought of posthumanism.Albee objects to techniques and skills in the traditional drama creation and makes consciousness of death run through themes of drama.At the same time,in the selection of images,Albee emphasizes the harmony between human beings and nature as well as the equality between human beings and animals.These thoughts coincide with posthumanism emphasizing criticism of rationality,the death of machinelike human beings and the harmonious ecology,which causes audiences' reflection on human existence and social crisis and displays Albee's sense of responsibility as a drama innovator.Produced in 1975,Seascape is one of Albee's works winning Pulitzer Prize for Drama,embodying Albee's idea of posthumanism.The scholars at home and abroad think highly of Albee's plays.However,most studies mainly focus on the absurdity and innovation of his early drama and ignore the profound thinking and his later works to some degree.By using the method of text analysis,this thesis explores the posthuman thoughts in Seascape and Edward Albee's sense of responsibility as a dramatist,and then discusses the practical significance of the analysis.Above all,this thesis is supposed to enrich domestic studies of Edward Albee,make readers deeply understand Albee's drama creation,and inspire readers to reflect on human existence and the relationship between human beings and nature.As a whole,this thesis consists of three parts,that is,introduction,body and conclusion.The first part is introduction.This part begins with a brief introduction of Edward Albee and his play Seascape,and then a general outline of the studies of Edward Albee at home and abroad.Finally,it states the significance of this thesis.The second part is the body of the thesis which includes four chapters.The first chapter is theoretical interpretation.It expounds the main characteristics of the posthumanism including the criticism of rationalism of traditional humanism,the alienation of human beings under the capitalist system and the death of the machinelike human,the criticism of the anthropocentrism and the advocation of harmonious ecology.Next,it analyzes the relationship between posthumanism and humanism from the perspective of the mode of thinking,cultural values and ethical values to make a further elaboration of the advancement of posthumanism.The second chapter interprets Albee's question of traditional thought and his criticism of rationality by analyzing techniques and skills in Seascape.The disordered language,abnormal structure and the use of irrelevant props show that people can not rationally control their behavior because a lot of irrational factors such as emotions and desires determine human behavior.What's more,as the product of rationality and civilization,the development of science and technology brings many troubles to human survival.These thoughts coincide with posthuman criticism of rationality.The third chapter interprets the death of traditional human beings by analyzing the multiple themes of Seascape.Whether the family theme,the philosophy theme or the social theme all embodies that under capitalist system,with the loss of ethics and morality,human beings are facing the alienation,which leads to the death of traditional human beings,that is the death of a machinelike human beings.The fourth chapter interprets Albee's ecological view through analysis of the images in Seascape.The personalized lizards,seascapes,beaches and fish reflect Albee's criticism of anthropocentrism.He advocates recovering the original,relative and pluralistic existence of human beings and the world.The review of the human beings themselves and the relationship between human beings and nature,human beings and non-human creatures will be helpful to the unity between human beings and nature and the symbiosis between human beings and animals.Only by establishing of the moderate and diversified ecological view,can human naturality and sociality be unified to help people get rid of the dilemma.All these show the harmonious ecological view of posthumanism.The last part is the conclusion.It summarizes the posthuman thoughts in Edward Albee's plays.Only by establishing a harmonious and equal relationship with nature and animals,can the sustainable development of human society be realized.Finally,it points out the novelty and deficiency of this thesis,as well as the necessity of keeping on studying his new literary works.