摘要
自从爱德华·阿尔比二十世纪五十年代在美国剧坛崭露头角以来,他常常因为作品中存在对美国现代社会紊乱的家庭关系的描写而被公认为是一个社会批评家。
在对阿尔比的《美国梦》(1961)、《谁害怕弗吉尼亚·沃尔夫?》(1962)、以及《微妙的平衡》(1966)三部代表作品的分析的基础上,本文首先试图挖掘出在这三部作品里隐含的社会问题,然后通过阿尔比对剧中失衡的家庭关系的解决找出他对家庭社会问题的解决方法。再者,由于存在主义思想尤其是萨特和加缪对阿尔比的影响,本文将在存在主义思想的范畴里从五方面研究阿尔比对解决家庭关系和社会问题的探索。
第一部分主要介绍了阿尔比的寄养生活、他和存在主义思想的联系、以及与本文主题相关的国内外关于阿尔比戏剧研究的现状。第二部分主要阐释了存在主义对阿尔比的影响以及其三部家庭戏剧里所反映的社会问题。第三部分在萨特存在主义思想的基础上分析了阿尔比剧中紊乱的家庭关系。第四部分在加缪的“觉醒”的思想以及萨特自由和责任的思想的启发下,总结了阿尔比处理家庭社会问题的方法。最后一部分得出结论分：尽管阿尔比在处理失调的家庭关系的方法上还存在一定的缺陷,他提出的维持家庭社会平衡的方法仍使当今社会受益匪浅。
Emerging on the American theatrical scene in the 1950s, Edward Albee (1928—) is always considered as a social critic for his description of dysfunctional family relationships in modern American society.
Based on the analysis of Albee's three representative plays The American Dream (1961), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), and A Delicate Balance (1966), this thesis tries to dig out the societal problems embedded in these plays and then find out Albee's way to deal with the social problems through his solution to alleviate the frustrated family relationships in his plays. What is more, because of the influence of the existential thoughts, especially of Sartre and Camus's concepts having exerted on Albee, this thesis will apply the existential thoughts to interpreting the process of Albee's searching for the way to solve both familial and social problems and it consists of five parts.
The introduction illustrates Albee's adopted life, the connection between Albee and the existential thoughts, as well as the studies concerning on the theme of this thesis at home and abroad. As for Chapter One, it consists of the existentialism's influence on Albee and the social problems miniaturized in his three typical family plays. On the basis of the basic concepts of Sartre's existentialism. Chapter Two has explicated the abnormal family relationships in Albee's three plays. In Chapter Three, through the inspiration of Camus'idea of awakening as well as Sartre's concept of freedom and responsibility, Albee's way to deal with the familial and social problems will be concluded. In the last part, it comes to the conclusion that although there is the deficiency in Albee's alleviation of the deformed family relationships, his way to maintain the familial and social balance can still benefit our society a lot.
引文
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3 Gussow, Mel. Edward Albee: A Singular Journey: A Biography. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), p.22.
4 Ibid., p.26.
5 Diehl, Digby. "Edward Albee Interviewed" in Conversations with Edward Albee. Ed. Kolin, Philip C. (Jackson: Up of Mississippi, 1988), pp. 20-37.
6 Roudane, Matthew C. "Albee on Albee" in Kolin, Philip C. & David, J. Madisen, eds. Critical Essays on Edward Albee. (New York: G. K. Hall, 1986), p. 196.
7 Spencer, Sharon D. "Edward Albee: the Anger Artist" in Kolin, Philip C. & David, J. Madisen, eds. Critical Essays on Edward Albee. (New York: G. K. Hall, 1986), p.135
8 Rutenberg, Michael. "Albee in Protest" in Kolin, Philip C. & David, J. Madisen, eds. Critical Essays on Edward Albee. (New York: G. K. Hall, 1986), p. 122.
9 Paolucci, Anne. From Tension to Tonic: The Plays of Edward Albee. (Carbondale: Southern Illions University Press, 1972) p.6.Singh, Abha. Contemporary American Drama: A Study in the Plays of Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller and Edward Albee. (New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1998), p. 126.
11 Zinman, Toby Silverman. Edward Albee. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008), p.7.
12 Way, Brain. "Albee and the Absurd" in Kolin, Philip C. & David, J. Madisen, eds. Critical Essays on Edward Albee. (New York: G. K. Hall, 1986), p.67.
13.McCarthy, Gerry. Edward Albee. (Hampshire Basingstoke: Macmillan Publishers Ltd, 1987), p.5. 14 Kolin, Philip C. "Albee's early one-act plays" in Bottoms, Stephen, ed. TheCambridge Companion to Edward Albee. (New York: Cambridge UniversityPress, 2005), p.28. b Zinman, Toby Silverman. Edward Albee. (Ann Arbor: University of MichiganPress, 2008), p.37.
16 Paolucci, Anne. From Tension to Tonic: The Plays of Edward Albee. (Carbondale: Southern Illions University Press, 1972) p.36.
17 Roy, Emil. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf> and the Tradition" in Kolin, Philip C. & David, J. Madisen, eds. Critical Essays on Edward Albee. (New York: G. K. Hall, 1986), p.89.
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23 Bigsby, C. W. E. Modern American Drama, 1945-2000. (Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000), p. 120.
24 Kemper, Robert Grahan. "A Weekend with the 'Can Do' Family" in Kolin, Philip C. & David, J. Madisen, eds. Critical Essays on Edward Albee. (New York: G. K. Hall, 1986), p.54.
25 Bigsby, C. W. E. Albee. (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1969), p.97.
26 Paolucci, Anne. From Tension to Tonic: The Plays of Edward Albee. (Carbondale: Southern Illions University Press, 1972) p.l 10.
27 Perry, Virginia I. "Disturbing our sense of well-being: the 'uninvited" in A Delicate Balance" in Edward Alhee: An Interview and Essays Ed. Julian N. Wasserman. (Houston, Tex.: University of St. Thomas, 1983). p.55.
28 Porter, M. Gilbert. "Toby's Last Stand: The Evanescence of Commitment in A Delicate Balance" in Kolin, Philip C. & David, J. Madisen, eds. Critical Essays on Edward Albee. (New York: G. K. Hall, 1986), p. 167.
29 McCarthy, Gerry. Edward Albee. (Hampshire Basingstoke: Macmillan Publishers Ltd, 1987), p.81.
30 Singh, Abha. Contemporary American Drama: A Study in the Plays of Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller and Edward Albee. (New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1998), p. 166.
31 Gussow, Mel. Edward Albee: A Singular Journey: A Biography. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), p.254.
32 Bottoms, Stephen, Ed. The Cambridge Companion to Edward Albee. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p.9.
33 Clum, John M. '"Withered age and stale custom': marriage, diminution, and sex in Tiny Alice, A Delicate Balance, and Finding the Sun" in Bottoms, Stephen, Ed. The Cambridge Companion to Edward Albee. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p.66.
34 Zinman, Toby Silverman. Edward Albee. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008), p.62.
33 Roy. Emil. "Who Sr Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the Tradition" in Kolin, Philip C. & David, J. Madisen, eds. Critical Essays on Edward Albee. (New York: G. K. Hall, 1986), p.87.
36 Bigsby, C. W. E. Albee. (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1969), p.53.
37 Falk, Eugene H. 'Wo Exit and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: A Thematic Comparision" in Studies in Philosophy 67 (1970). The material above has not been collected directly and it is quoted from the material collected in Kolin, Philip C. & David, J. Madisen, eds. Critical Essays on Edward Albee. (New York: G. K. Hall, 1986), p. 15.
38 Paolucci, Anne. From Tension to Tonic: The Plays of Edward Albee. (Carbondale: Southern Illions University Press, 1972) p. 15.
39 Roudane, Matthew C. Understanding Edward Albee. (Columbia: University of South of Carolina Press, 1987), p.99.
40 郭继德：《当代美国戏剧发展趋势》，山东：山东大学出版社，2009．第70页。
41 邹惠玲：“论阿尔比早期剧作的荒诞特色”，《徐州师范大学学报(哲学社会科学版)》(2)，1997．第95-98页。
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45 Abbotson, C. W. Susan. Masterpieces of 20-Century American Drama. (Beijing: Renmin University of China Press, 2007), p. 13.
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51 Albee, Edward. Stretching My Mind. (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2005), p.8.
52 Roy, Emil. " Who s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the Tradition" in Kolin, Philip C. & David, J. Madisen, eds. Critical Essays on Edward Albee. (New York: G K. Hall, 1986), p.88.
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58 Rutenberg, Michael. "Albee in Protest" in Kolin, Philip C. & David, J. Madisen, eds. Critical Essays on Edward Albee. (New York: G K. Hall, 1986), p.122.
59 "Family". Def. 3a. Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989.
60 Fromm, Erich. The Art of Loving. (New York: Harper& Row Publishers, 1956), p.87.
61 Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness. Trans. Hazel E. Barnes. (Beijing: China Social and Sciences Publishing House, 1999), pp364-377.
62 Ibid., pp.379-399.
63 Ibid., p.378.
64 Ibid.,p.32.
65 Ibid.,p.48.
66 Ibid., p.50.
67 Gussow, Mel. Edward Albee: A Singular Journey: A Biography. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), p. 153.
68 Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness. Trans. Hazel E. Barnes. (Beijing: China Social and Sciences Publishing House, 1999), p.380.
69 Hirsch, Foster. Who's Afraid of Edward Albee?. (Berkeley, CA: Creative Arts Book Company. 1978), p. 17
70 Sartre, Jean-Paul. No Exit and Three Other Plays. (New York: Vintage International, 1989), p.45.
71 Ibid.,p.41.
72 Roudane, Matthew C. "A Playwright Speaks: An Interview with Edward Aibee" in Kolin. Philip C. & David, J. Madisen, eds. Critical Essays on Edward Albee. (New York: G. K. Hall, 1986), p. 198.
73 Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays. (New York: Vintage, 1991), p. 10.
74 Ibid, p. 122.
75 Ibid.,p.l21.
76 Hirsch, Foster. Who s Afraid of Edward Albee?. (Berkeley, CA: Creative Arts Book Company, 1978), p.45.
77 Sartre, Jean-Paul. "Is Existentialism a Humanism" in Kaufmann, Walter Arnold, ed. Existentialism: from Dostoevsky to Sarte. (New York: Meridian Books, 1956), pp 434-436.
78 Ibid.,p.291.
79 Ibid., p.553.
80 Ibid.,p.292.
81 Edward Albee. "Conversation with Catch" in Stretching My Mind. (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2005), p.99.
82 Kolin, Philip C. "Albee's early one-act plays" in Bottoms, Stephen, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Edward Albee. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p.32.
83 Roudane, Matthew C. "A Playwright Speaks: An Interview with Edward Albee" in Kolin, Philip C. & David, J. Madisen, eds. Critical Essays on Edward Albee. (New York: G K. Hall, 1986), p. 196.
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