The New Absurdists: Elements of the Absurd in New Russian Drama

Abstract

This thesis examines the importance of the absurd in Russia's New Drama movement. Three different plays are analyzed: Russian National Postal Service (1998) by Oleg Bogaev, Vodka, Fucking, and Television (2006) by Maksim Kurochkin, and Man from Podolsk (2017) by Dimitrii Danilov. Each work is used to examine a different aspect of the absurd in the Russian context. Using these plays, which are some of the more prominent works of New Drama, the thesis demonstrates how the socio-political circumstances affected playwriting in the post-Soviet period. The goal is to show how upheaval, confusion, and changing circumstances bore out in the theater scene through a push towards Absurdism in playwriting. The three plays are analyzed through in-depth close reading that connects New Drama to the Theater of the Absurd and Albert Camus' philosophical writings. Ultimately, the thesis shows that what ties New Drama together is not an overemphasis on documentary style (as many scholars have argued), but a distinct reworking of Absurdism to express Russian reality.