摘要
丢掉幻想,清醒过活可以说是爱德华·阿尔比戏剧的永恒主题。作为三度普利策奖获得者,阿尔比(1928-)在他几十年的写作生涯中,致力于呈现现代人的空虚,隔绝,孤独的存在以及他们为这种生存状态寻找意义而付出的努力。在阿尔比的戏剧中,主人公们最终都能真诚地面对自己的内心与周围世界,因此他被广泛地公认为是依然健在的对美国戏剧有着杰出贡献的伟大的戏剧家。同时受到了如之前奥尼尔,威廉斯和米勒所受的尊重与关注。
上世纪五十年代,当西方世界步入发达的工业化时代,人们的焦虑,隔绝感也随之空前高涨。在此背景下,阿尔比创作出了《动物园的故事》并因此一举成名。该剧是年轻的阿尔比献给自己三十岁的生日礼物。它首先在欧洲随后在美国上演均获得成功。剧中阿尔比以杰瑞和彼得的冲突对抗探究了在消费,资本文化下人与人之间隔绝的痛苦和生活在自鸣得意的幻想中的危险。剧终,杰瑞的死让彼得开始从他错误的认识中得以解救,幻想得以净化。在阿尔比的世界中,人与人的交流不是不可能的。交流有助于消除隔绝,剥去幻想从而认清自我和现实。毫无疑问,阿尔比以人们能够跟自己以及他人真诚交流的可能性(尽管年轻的阿尔比在该剧中让杰瑞以极端的暴力手段来触动彼得)来表明他对人与自我,人与人之间重新建立联系的乐观和人文关怀。
如果把《动物园的故事》看作是阿尔比向消费主义的美国社会发出的第一枪,那么《美国梦》完全可以说是一场战争。作为阿尔比的第二部成功之作,《美国梦》向把表象当作现实的空虚的中产阶级发动了又一次进攻。在这部剧中,美国梦原有的纯真荡然无存,取而代之的是永不满足的物质欲望和扭曲到了极端的价值观。剧终当一切看上去都按妈妈和爸爸所愿时,我们感叹阿尔比对美国人空虚的生活和自欺欺人的幻想的深刻讽刺。至《美国梦》阿尔比创作的“练笔”阶段可谓结束了。1962年10月,阿尔比的第一部多幕剧《谁害怕弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫》上演,它毫无疑问地确立了阿尔比在美国文学中的地位,“起到了如之前奥尼尔,米勒和威廉斯一般举足轻重的作用。”’
在库德希看来“《弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫》是承袭《美国梦》对美国梦探究的延伸。”2剧中玛莎的父亲,这个没有出现的“他者”是社会成功标准的评判者。由于无法达到父亲确立的标准,丈夫乔治利妻子玛莎共同制造出了一个象征成功美国梦的假想儿子。萨特曾指出:他人即地狱。在父亲这个“他者”眼光注视下的自己可以说是一个逃避自己为他人而存在的自己。剧终通过毁掉这个孩子,乔治和玛莎给了他们勇于改变接受没有幻想的现实生活的暗示。在这部多幕剧中,阿尔比充满同情地刻画了成功标准下生存的痛苦和无奈,展现了他“透过社会的表象而直伸入本质”3的艺术家的洞察力。
尽管幻想一直是贯穿阿尔比作品的主题,但从《微妙的平衡》起,这一主题从发起对美国社会具有破坏性社会习俗的公开进攻转向了对人的私下的恐惧与困顿的审视,从而揭示出人私底下的存在困境。对现代人而言,个人的恐惧与缺失某种程度上阻碍他完全地,真正地参与生活。生活中他靠逃避的幻想来寻求心灵上的慰籍。在《微妙的平衡》中阿尔比通过让他的主人公们去面对恐惧,从而认识到自己的局限,接受存在这一唯一的现实。当哈利和艾德娜带着他们那看不见的“恐惧”离开时,托比亚斯和埃格奈斯好像又回到了他们先前的自以为是的虚幻的有序生活中。但在这部作品中阿尔比没有像他前期作品那样给出激进明确的答案,而是更多地显示出了他对人的容忍与接受。尽管托比亚斯在选择抛弃幻想上有延宕,但在阿尔比看来只要人在选择中忠实了他真的自己,他就显示出了可敬的人的尊严与勇气。
幻想与现实的冲突有时表现在自由意志和命运之间。斯明林斯基指出:“考虑到自由意志,幻想就是人类的困境。”4当人们陷入行使自由意志的幻想中,等待他们的只有失望。这就是阿尔比带有自传性质的《三个高个子女人》中的人物A所感受到的生活。这位92岁的女人,在她生命的弥留之际认识到了虚幻的自由意志的行使所带给她存在的风险与苦痛。承担行使自由意志的后果,抛弃幻想,A获得了对自我的全面认识,表现出了面对现实的勇气从而也获得了真正意义上的自由。
生活是荒诞的,在阿尔比看来人不能通过虚幻的逃避来否定它的荒诞。在荒诞面前人可以从建立人与人之间的真正联系到对自己内心的拷问为生活寻找意义,实现人的自由。这也是阿尔比为什么反对把自己标签为“荒诞派剧作家”。不同于与荒诞派戏剧重复、无望、无出路,阿尔比的作品,从人物早期鲜明的愤怒,中期选择上的迟疑到晚期带有些许倔强的对失望人生的回顾,传递的是人应学会从抛弃幻想面对真实的自己之中找寻生活的意义,体现出他对人,对生活的积极肯定。徜徉于阿尔比作品中,我们跟随着这位对自己的身份始终疑惑,直到创作出作品《三个高个子女人》才找回了自己,获得了重生的“弃儿”,经历了-次生命之旅。生的意义在于面对自己的真实存在,这就是阿尔比作品带给我们的朴素但又回味无穷的启示。
If there is an enduring theme to Edward Albee's plays, it is the need to strip away illusions and live consciously. A three-time Pulitzer winner, Albee devotes his decades-long writing career to picturing the emptiness of the modern man, to dramatizing the alienated lonely existence of the individual and his struggle to make some meaning of this human condition, as well as to inviting his leading characters to live honestly both in their inner and outer worlds. His contribution to American theater makes him widely recognized today as America's greatest living playwright. And he is given the respect and serious attention that have previously been reserved only for Eugene O'Neil, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller.
By1950, when the Western world had stepped into the advanced industrial age, the levels of anxiety and feelings of alienation were also at all-time high. Against this background, young Albee made his voice heard by producing The Zoo Story as a gift for his thirtieth birthday and got a sensational success first in Europe and then in America. In the specifics of Jerry and Peter's confrontation Albee explores the agony of human alienation in a consumerist, capitalist culture and the danger of living with illusory complacency. Peter, at the end of the play, has been/is liberated from his false assumptions and is beginning to finally purge his illusions. Communication is not impossible in Albee's world. For Albee communication shatters alienation and strips illusion off to the bone of its reality. The possibility that the individual can communicate honestly with the self and the other undoubtedly lays bare Albee's humanism and optimism for regeneration and reconstruction of a new model of community and citizenship.
If The Zoo Story can be said as Albee's first gun-shot at the world of American consumerism, The American Dream is an all-out war. As Albee's second big success, The American Dream launched another attack on the void, sterilized life characterizing American middle-class who takes appearance for reality. In this play the sense of innocence implicit in the myth of the American Dream collapses, and in its place insatiable material gratification and distorted values take hold to the extreme. At the very end of the drama, when everything seems to have been wrapped up nicely for Mommy and Daddy, we are amazed at Albee's penetrating satire of the emptiness of American life, the hollowness of its deceptive illusion of satisfaction. With The American Dream Albee's apprenticeship can be considered to have completed. In October1962, Albee's first full-length play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf was performed. It unquestionably certified Albee's place in American literature, making him "as the man singled out to take on the burden formerly carried on by O'Neill, Miller and Williams"5(Bigsby,1975,5).
In Choudhuri's view "Virginia Woolf may well be viewed as an extension of the exploration of the myth of the American Dream taken up in The American Dream."6(133) In the play Martha's father, the absent Other, is always the judge who sets societal standards of success and acts as mirrors by which other characters'identities are reflected. Unable to measure up to the standard, George and Martha play a game of having a son, who is the American Dream of Success. Jean-Paul Sartre once states that "Hell is the Others." The self, one becomes through one's experience of the Other's gaze is a self that escapes himself and exists for the Other. By destroying their son-myth at the end of the play, the couple suggests a definitive change to accept their life without illusion. Virginia Woolf dramatizes with full sympathy the existential dilemma in its most painful human immediacy, successfully fulfilling Albee's attempt to penetrate beneath the appearance of modern society to get down to "the bone... the marrow".7
Though illusion is a theme running through Albee's work, from A Delicate Balance on, this theme moves from launching frontal assaults on destructive social customs to becoming more subtle scrutinies of the secret personal fears and perplexities in the hope of unveiling the private side of the predicament of human existence. For modern men, personal fear and loss in some ways prevent them from participating in life fully and honestly. Seeking comfort, they sustain their lives with illusions of escape. In A Delicate Balance, Albee makes his heroes confront their fears, during the process of which, they learn about their limits and accept their existential situations as the only reality there is. Though the moment Harry and Edna leave with their intangible "Terror", Tobias and Agnes probably seem to be reverting to their previously ordered balance of life, in Albee's view, human dignity and courage are shown in whatever choices they make as long as they are true to their authentic selves.
The conflict between illusion and reality many a time takes the form of one between free will and fate. Smilansky states "I have argued that, concerning free will, illusion is the human predicament."8The ways in which people engage in illusion to the effect of exercising their free will leave them with disappointment. This is what character A in Three Tall Women finds about her life. This ninety-two-year-old woman, in the final stage of her life, recognizes the limits and illusory feature of her free will that contributes to the risk and pain of her existence. Authentic life lies in accepting responsibility for the actions motivated by the exercise of free will. In her rejection of illusions, she gains full self-knowledge and finds herself free in its true sense.
Life is absurd. We cannot deny its absurdity by fixing some illusory meaning upon it; but we can live it humanly in the face of its absurdity. To Discard illusions and live consciously is all that Albee calls for throughout his works. Examining life, exploring soul, man finds meaning for this meaningless world and thus achieves the real free self. This is also why Albee refuses to label his works "absurd theater". Repetition, no-exit, and meaninglessness are the characteristics of the absurd theater. Albee's works, on the contrary, is full of life affirmations. The heroes who are distinctively angry in his early productions, who are reluctant in making choices in his middle and who are disappointed when looking back in his late, learn to discard illusions. It can be said that Albee's canon provides us with a life journey, through which we arrive at a destination of true existence.
引文
1Bigsby, C. W.E. (ed.) Edward Albee:A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall,1975. p.5
2Choudhuri. A. D.The Face of Illusion in American Drama. Atlantic Highlands,N.J:Humanities Press.1979. p. 133
3 Albee. Edward. The Collected Plays of Edward Albee. Woodstock & New York:The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers. Inc.2004. p.291.
4 Smilansky,Saul. Free Will and Illusion. Oxford:Clarendon Press,2000. P.295.
3 Bigsby. C.W.E. (ed.) Edward Albee:A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs. NJ:Prentice-Hall.1975. p.5
6 Choudhuri. A.D. The Face of Illusion in American Drama. Atlantic Highlands. N.J:Humanities Press,1979. p. 133
7 Albee. Edward. The Collected Plays of Edward Albee. Woodstock & New York:The Overlook Press. Peter Mayer Publishers. Inc.2004. p.291.
8 Smilanskv. Saul. Free Will and Illusion. Oxford:Clarendon Press.2000. P.295.
1 Quoted in Mel Gussow, Edward Albee:A Singular Journey (New York:Simon and Schuster,1999), p. 385.
2 Patricia De La Fuente. "Edward Albee:An Interview," Conversation with Edward Albee, ed. Philip C. Kolin (Jackson:University Press of Mississippi,1988), p.144.
3 Bigsby, C.W.E. Albee. Edinburgh:Oliver & Boyd,1969. pp.115-116.
4 Paolucci Ann, From Tension to Tonic:The Plays of Edward Albee, Carbondale:Southern Illinois University Press,1972. p.3.
5 Patricia De La Fuente. "Edward Albee:An Interview," Conversations with Edward Albee, ed. Philip. C. Kolin (Jackson:University Press of Mississippi,1988) p.143.
6 Digby Diehl, "Edward Albee," Transatlantic Review 13 (1963) P.72.
7 Roudane, Matthew C. Understanding Edward Albee. Columbia, SC:University of South Carolina Press, 1987. p.19.
8 Martin Esslin, The Theatre of the Absurd. New York:Doubleday,1961. p.268.
9 Digby Diehl. "Edward Albee Interviewed," Kolin, p.36.
10 Choudhuri, A.D. The Face of Illusion in American Drama. Madras:The Macmillan Company of India Limited,1979. p.130.
11 Matthew C. Roundane, "An Interview with Edward Albee," Southem Humanities Review 16 (1982):p. 41,43.
12 Bigsby, C.W.E. Albee. Edinburgh:Olivers Boyd,1969. p.35.
13Roudane, Matthew C. Understanding Edward Albee. Columbia, SC:University of South Carolina Press,1987. p.22.
14 Debusscher, Gilbert. Edward Albee:Tradition and Renewal. Brussels:Center for American Studies, 1969. p.16.
15 Bottoms, Stephen, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Edward Albee. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,2005. p.57.
16 Ibid. p.69.
17.Bigsby, Christopher."'Better Alert Than Numb':Albee Since the Eighties." The Cambridge Companion to Edward Albee. Ed. Stephen Bottoms. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,2005. p.162.
18.Bigsby, C.W.E. Albee. Edinburgh:Oliver & Boyd,1969. p.111.
19.Ibid.p.113
20.Ibid.p.115.
21.Edward Albee.Three Tall Women. New York:Dutton,1994. p.110.
22.Albert Camus, Camets 1942-1951, tr. Philip Thody. London:1966. p.103
23.Carpenter, "American Drama," p.37
1 Lisa M. Siefker Bailey, "Absurdly American:Rediscovering the representation of violence in The Zoo Story".in Edward Albee:A Case Book. ed. Bruce J. Mann. New York:Routledge,2003. p.32
2 Ibid. p.32
3 Anon, "Albee", The New Yorker,25 March 1961, p.7
4. Ibid. p.31
5 Jerry Tallmer, "Edward Albee, Playwright," New York Post, Sunday Magazine section,4 November 1962, p.10.
6. Lukas, "Who Isn't Afraid, " p.113; Weatherby, "Do You like," p.7 in Edward Albee by Richard E. Amacher. Boston:Twayne Publishers,1982, p.4
Edward Albee, "Which Theatre is the absurd One?," in American Playwrights on Drama, ed. Horst Frenz. New York:Hill and Wang,1965. pp.172-173
8 Anonymous, "Albee," p.2. Albee's first four successful plays were produced off Broadway, in Edward Albee by Richard E. Amacher. Boston:Twayne Publishers,1982, p.5
9 "Off Broadway," in The Best Plays of 1959-60, ed. Louis Kronenberger. New York:Dodd, Mead,1960. p.39
10 Rose A. Zimbardo, "Symbolism and Naturalism in Edward Albee's The Zoo Story," in Edward Albee ed. C. W. E Bigsby. Engllewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall,1975. p 47
11 Ibid,46
12 Ibid,46
13 Philip, Mairet,'Introduction', Existentialism and Humanism. London:Methuen 1948. p.11
14 Lisa M. Siefker Bailey, "Absurdly American:Rediscovering the representation of violence in The Zoo Story", in Edward Albee:A Case Book. ed. Bruce J. Mann. New York:Routledge,2003. p.35
15 Ibid. p.39
16 Rose A. Zimbardo, "Symbolism and Naturalism in Edward Albee's The Zoo Story," in Edward Albee ed. C. W. E Bigsby. Engllewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall,1975. p 48
17. Sullivan,Kathy. "Albee at Notre Dame." Conversation with Edward Albee. Ed. Philip C. Kolin. Jackson: University Pres of Mississippi,1988. p.184
18.Lisa M. Siefker Bailey, "Absurdly American:Rediscovering the representation of violence in The Zoo Story", in Edward Albee:A Case Book. ed. Bruce J. Mann. New York:Routledge,2003. p.33
19 Rose A. Zimbardo, "Symbolism and Naturalism in Edward Albee's The Zoo Story," in Edward Albee ed. C. W. E Bigsby. Engllewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall,1975. p 49
20.Matthew C. Roudane, "A Playwright Speaks:An Interview with Edward Albee, " Critical Essays on Edward Albee, ed. Philip C. Kolin and J. Madison Davis. Boston:Hall,1986. p.199
21 Lisa M. Siefker Bailey, "Absurdly American:Rediscovering the representation of violence in The Zoo Story", in Edward Albee:A Case Book. ed. Bruce J. Mann. New York:Routledge,2003. p.33-34
22.Martin Esslin, the Theatre of the Absurd. New York:1961. p.293
23.Lisa M. Siefker Bailey, "Absurdly American:Rediscovering the representation of violence in The Zoo Story", in Edward Albee:A Case Book. ed. Bruce J. Mann. New York:Routledge,2003. p.41
1 Philip C. Kolin, "Albee's early one-act plays" in The Cambridge Companion to Edward Albee. ed. Stephen Bottoms. New York:Cambridge University Press,2005. p.27
2 Matthew C. Roudane, "A Playwright Speaks:An Interview with Edward Albee, "Critical Essays on Edward Albee, ed. Philip C. Kolin and J. Madison Davis. Boston:Hall,1986. p.195-196.
3 Martin Esslin, New York Times Magazines,25:11,1962.
4 Brian, Way. "Albee and the Absurd:The American Dream and The Zoo Story", in Edward Albee:A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. C.W.E. Bigsby. N.J.:Prentice-Hall, Inc.,1975.p.36.
5 Philip C. Kolin, "Albee's early one-act plays" in The Cambridge Companion to Edward Albee. ed. Stephen Bottoms. New York:Cambridge University Press,2005. p.27.
6 Ibid. p.28-29.
7 HenryGoodman, "Edward Albee," Drama Survey,II (spring,1962), pp.72-79.
8 Brian Way. "Albee and the Absurd:The American Dream and The Zoo Story, in Edward Albee:A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. C.W.E. Bigsby. N.J.:Prentice-Hall, Inc.,1975. p.37.
9'Cohn, Ruby. "The Verbal Murders of Edward Albee" Kolin and Davis, Critical Essays, p.146-148.
10 Brian Way, "Albee and the Absurd:The American Dream and The Zoo Story, in Edward Albee:A Collection of Critical Essays,ed. C.W.E. Bigsby. N.J.:Prentice-Hall, Inc.,1975. p.42.
11'Lask, Thomas. "Dramatist in a Troubled World." The New York Times 22 January 1961:XI.
1.John Kenneth Galbraith, The Mystique of Failure:A Latter-Day Reflection on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in Critical Essays on Edward Albee by Philip C. Kolin and J. Madision Davis. Boston:G.K. Hall& Co.,1986. p.149.
2.Karl Jaspers, Man in the Modem Age, tr. Eden and Cedar Paul. London:1951, p.194.
3.Matthew C. Roudane, "An Interview with Edward Albee," Southern Humanities Review 16 (1982):38.
4.Alan Schneider,'Why so Afraid?'Tulane Drama Review, Ⅶ, ⅲ (Spring,1963), p.11.
5.Personal Interview, March 16,1965. more material
Hendrik Ruitenbeek, The Individual and the Crowd:A Study of Identity in America. New York:1965, p.92.
7.Life, Dec.14,1962.
Personal Interview, March 17,1965. more material
9.Theatre Arts, Nov.,1962.
10.Roudane, Matthew C. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?:Necessary Fictions, Terrifying Realities. Twayne's Masterwork Studies No.34. Boston:Twayne,1990.
11.Lincoln Konkle, "Good, Better, Best, Bested":The Failure of American Typology in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in Edward Albee:A Case Book, ed. by Bruce J. Mann, p.51.
12.Ibid. p.53.
13.Hopkins, Anthony. "Conventional Albee:Box and Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung." Edward Albee. Ed. Bloom, p.81-82.
1 T.S. Eliot, Buirnt Norton, No.1 of "Four Quarters'.
2 Herald Tribune (Paris) Sept.23,1966. protest 129
3 NBC-TV News,11;15 PM, Sept,23,1966.protest 129
4 New York Times, Aug.16,1966. protest 129,
5 Personal interview with the author,23 Sept.1980, Berkeley, CA.
6 Matthew C. Rundane, "Albee on Albee," RE:Artes Liberates 10 (1984):4.
7 John J. von Szeliski, "Albee:A Rare Balance," Twentieth Century Literature 16 (1970):126.
8 Foster Hirsch, Who's Afraid of Edward Albee? (Berkeley:Creative Arts Books,1978),p.48.
9 M. Patricia Fumerton, "Verbal Prisons:The Language of Albee's A Delicate Balance," English Studies in Canada 7 (1981):210.
10 Eric Fromm, The Art of Loving (London 1957).pp.96-7.
11 M. Gilbert Porter, "Toby's Last Stand:The Evanescence of Commitment in A Delicate Balance," Educational Theatre Journal 31 (1979):403.
12 Virginia I. Perry, "Disturbing our Sense of Well-Being:The'Uninvited'in A Delicate Balance," in Edward Albee:An Interview and Essays, ed. Julian N. Wasserman (Houston:University of St. Thomas, 1983), pp.59-60.
13 Robert M. Post, "Fear Itself:Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance," C.L.A. Journal 13, No.1 (Sept, 1969):167.
14 John J. von Szeliski, "Albee:A Rare Balance," Twentieth Century Literature 16, No.2 (April 1970):127.
15 William Barrett, What Is Existentialism? (New York:Grove,1964) p.59.
16 Ibid.
17 David Richards, "Albee After the Plunge," in Conversations with Edward Albee, ed. Philip C. Kolin (Jackson and London:University of Mississippi Press,1988), p.180.
18 Thomas P. Adler, "Albee's 3 1/2:The Pulitzer Plays," in The Cambridge Companion to Edward Albee, ed. Stephen Bottoms Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,2005, p.83.
19 lbid.p.82.
20 Quoted in Robert Brustein, The Theatre of Revolt (London 1965) p.290.
21 Edward Albee interviewed by Lester Strong, in "Aggression Against the Status Quo," Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review 4.1 (1977), p.9Quoted in Robert Brustein, The Theatre of Revolt (London 1965) p.290.
22 John J.von Szeliski, "Albee:A Rare Balance," Twentieth Century Literature 16.2 (Aril 1970), pp.124, 130,123.
1 Quoted from Lawrence Sacharow, "Directing Three Tall Women" in Edward Albee:A Case Book, ed. Bruce J. Mann. New York:Routledge,2003, p.120.
2 Rothenberg, Rose-Emily. "The Orphan Archetype." Psychological Perspectives 14 (1983):192.
3 Gussow, Mel. "Edward Albee, Elder Statesman, Is in a State of Professional Reprise." New York Times, December 1,1993:C17+
4 Bok, Sisslia. Lying. Hassocks:Harvester. New York:Vintage Books,1978,p.22.
5 Lahr, John. "Sons and Mothers." New Yorker 16 May 1994:104.
6 Adler, Thomas P. "'A's'Last Memory:Contextualizing Albee's Three Tall Women." The Playwright's Muse. Ed. Joan Herrington. New York:Routledge,2002. p.171.
7 New York Times, February 20,1994,5.
8 Ibid., February 14,1994,013.
9 Jack Kroll, Newsweek. Quoted from Edward Albee:The Later Plays by Anne Paolucci, NY:Griffon House Publications,2010. p.115.
10 Clive Barnes, New York Post. Quoted from Edward Albee:The Later Plays by Anne Paolucci, NY: Griffon House Publications,2010. p.115.
11 Greg Evans, Variety. Quoted from Edward Albee:The Later Plays by Anne Paolucci, NY:Griffon House Publications,2010. p.115.
12 D'Holbach, Baron, Systeme de la Nature X, xxi (tr. H. D. Robinsion) quoted from An Essay on Free Will by Peter Van Inwagen, Oxford:Clarendon Press,1983, p.153.
13 Quoted from Will Freedom and Power by Anthony Kenny. Oxford:Basil Blackwell,1975.p.145.
Edward Albee, "Playwright Edward Albee," Beverwyck Magazine, Londonsville, N.Y., Siena College) vol. ⅩⅩ (Winter 1966), p.29.
15 New York Times, June 16,1991.
1 Alan Schneider, interview, New York Post,31 January 1980.
2 Bigsby, Critical Introduction, vol.2,267.
3 "A World where Governments Fear the World," in "Playwrights on the Podium." Dramatists Guild Quarterly,22 (Winder 1986),10.
4 Quoted from John Grune, Close-Up (New York:Viking,1968, p.92.
The Zoo Story, The Death of Bessie Smith, The Sandbox. New York:Coward McCann,1960.
The American Dream. New York:Coward McCann,1961.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? New York:Atheneum,1962; London:Jonathan Cape,1964.
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. New York:Atheneum,1963; London:Jonathan Cape,1965.
Tiny Alice. New York:Atheneum,1965; London:Jonathan Cape,1966.
Malcolm. New York:Atheneum,1966; London:Jonathan Cape,1967.
A Delicate Balance. New York:Atheneum,1966; London:Jonathan Cape, 1968.
Everything in the Garden. New York:Atheneum,1968; London:Jonathan Cape,1968.
Box and Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung. New York:Atheneum, 1969; London:Jonathan Cape,1970.
All Over. New York:Atheneum,1971; London:Jonathan Cape,1972.
Seascape. New York:Atheneum,1975; London:Jonathan Cape,1976.
Counting the Ways and Listening. New York:Atheneum,1977.
The Lady from Dubuque. New York:Atheneum,1980.
Lolita. New York:Dramatists Play Service,1984.
Finding the Sun. New York:Dramatists Play Service,1995.
Fragments:A Sit-Around. New York:Dramatists Play Service,1995.
Marriage Play.New York:Dramatists Play Service,1995.
Three Tall Women. New York:Dutton,1994; London:Penguin,1995.
The Play About the Baby. New York:Overlook,2003; London:Methuen,2003.
The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?(Notes Toward a Definition of Tragedy). New York: Overlook,2003; London:Methuen,2004.
The Collected Plays of Edward Albee, Volume Ⅰ. New York:Overlook,2004.
The Collected Plays of Edward Albee, Volume Ⅱ. New York:Overlook,2005
The Collected Plays of Edward Albee, Volume Ⅲ. New York:Overlook,2005.
Stretching My Minds. New York:Carroll & Graf Publishers,2005.
Amacher, Richard E, Edward Albee. New York:Twayne,1969.
And reach, Robert J. Drawing Upon the Past:Classical Theatre in the Contemporary American Theatre. New York:P. Lang,2003.
---. Creating the Self in the Contemporary American Theatre. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press,1998.
Anon, "Albee", The New Yorker,25 March 1961, p.7.
Barrett, William. What Is Existentialism? New York:Grove,1964. p.59.
Bigsby, C.W.E. Albee. Edinburgh:Oliver and Boyd,1969.
---. ed. Edward Albee:A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall,1975
---. Confrontation and Commitment:A Study of Contemporary Drama. Columbia:University of Missouri Press,1968.
---. A Critical Introduction to Twentieth Century American Drama, Volume 2: Williams, Miller, Albee. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,1984.
---. Modern American Drama,1945-2000. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,2000.
Blatanis, Konstantinos. Popular Culture Icons in Contemporary American Drama. Madison, N.J.:Fairleigh Dickinson University Press,2003
Bloom, Harold (ed.). Edward Albee:Modern Critical Views. New York:Chelsea House,1987.
Bottoms, Stephen J. Albee:Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,2000.
---.(ed.)The Cambridge Companion to Edward Albee. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,2005.
Brown, Jason W. Process and the Authentic Life:Towards a Psychology of Value. Piscataway, NJ:Transaction Books,2005.
Camus, Albert. Carnets 1942-1951, tr. Philip Thody. London:1966. p.103
Choudhuri, A.D. The Face of Illusion in American Drama. Delhi:Macmillan, 1979.
Cohn, Ruby. Edward Albee. Minneapolis:University of Minnesota Press,1969.
---. New American Dramatists.1960-1990. Houndsmills:Macmillan,1991.
Cotkin, George. Existential America. Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press,2003
Debusscher, Gilbert. Edward Albee:Tradition and Renewal. Brussels:Center for American Studies,1969.
Davis, Walter A. Get the Guests:Psychoanalysis, Modern American Drama, and the Audience. Madison:The University of Wisconsin Press,1994.
Debusscher, Gilbert and Schvey, Henry l.(eds). New Essays on American Drama. Amsterdam:Rodopi,1989.
Diehl, Digby. "Edward Albee," Transatlantic Review 13 (summer 1963):72.
Dircks, Phyllis T. Edward Albee:A Literary Companion. Jefferson:McFarland & Company, Inc.,2010.
Erickson, Steven C. "The Drama of Dispossession in Selected Plays of Six Major American Playwrights" A Doctoral Dissertation of The University of Texas at Dallas,1991.
Esslin, Martin. The Theatre of the Absurd. New York:Doubleday,1961.
Fromm, Erich. Escape from Freedom. New York:Avon Books,1941.
---. The Art of Loving. New York:Harper,1956.pp.96-7.
Fumerton, M. Patricia. "Verbal Prisons:The Language of Albee's A Delicate Balance," English Studies in Canada 7 (1981):210.
Giantvalley, Scott. Edward Albee:A Reference Guide. Boston:G.K. Hall & Co.,1987.
Goodman, Henry. "Edward Albee," Drama Survey.ll (spring,1962), pp.72-79.
Green, Charles Lee. Edward Albee:An Annotated Bibliography,1968-1977.
New York:AMS Press,1980.
Guignon, Charles. On Being Authentic. New York:Routledge,2004
Gussow, Mel. Edward Albee:A Singular Journey. New York:Simon and Schuster,1999.
Harper, Ralph. The Existential Experience. Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press,1972.
Harris, A. Bennett. "Storytelling in the Plays of Edward Albee". A Doctoral Dissertation of Columbia University,1981.
Hayman, Ronald. Edward Albee. London:Heinemann,1971.
Hirsch, Foster. Who's Afraid of Edward Albee? Berkeley:Creative Arts Books, 1978.
Horn, Barbara Lee. Edward Albee:A Research and Production Sourcebook. Westport:Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.,2003.
Jaspers, Karl. Man in the Modern Age, tr. Eden and Cedar Paul. London:1951, p.194.
Jolivet, Regis. Sartre:The Theology of the Absurd. New York:Newman Press, 1967.
Kavanaugh, John F. Who Count as Persons:Human Identity and the Ethics of Killing. Washington, D.C.:Georgetown University Press,2001.
Kernan, Alvin B. (ed.) The Modern American Theatre:A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall,1967.
Koestenbaum, Peter. The Vitality of Death:Essays in Existential Psychology and Philosophy. Westport:Greenwood Pub. Co.,1971.
Kolin, Philip C. (ed.) Conversations with Edward Albee. Jackson and London: University Press of Mississippi,1988.
Kolin, Philip C. and J. Madison Davis (eds.). Critical Essays on Edward Albee. Boston:G. K. Hall,1986.
Krasner, David. American Drama 1945-2000:An Introduction. Malden: Blackwell Publishing,2006.
---. A Companion to Twentieth-Century American Drama. Malden:Blackwell, 2005.
Kronenberger, Louis, (ed.) "Off Broadway," in The Best Plays of 1959-60. New York:Dodd, Mead,1960. p.39
Madden, David, (ed.) American Dreams, American Nightmares. Carbondale and Edwardsville:Southern Illinois University Press,1970.
Mairet, Philip.'Introduction', Existentialism and Humanism. London:Methuen 1948. p.11
Mann, Bruce J.(ed.) Edward Albee:A Casebook. New York:Routledge,2003.
Marranca, B. and Dasgupta, G. American Playwrights:A Critical Survey. New York:Drama Book,1981.
Mayberry. Bob. Theatre of Discord:Dissonance in Beckett, Albee and Pinter. Rutherford, NJ:Farleigh Dickinson University Pres,1989.
McCarthy, Gerry. Edward Albee. New York:St. Martin's Press,1987; London: Macmillan,1987.
McElroy, Davis Dunbar. Existentialism and Modern Literature:An Essay in Existential Criticism. New York:Philosophical Library,1963.
Paolucci, Anne. From Tension to Tonic:The Plays of Edward Albee. Carbondale:Southern Illinois University Press,1972.
---. Edward Albee:the Late Plays. NY:Grisson House Publications,2010.
Parker, Dorothy, (ed.) Essays on Modern American Drama. Toronto:University of Toronto Press,1987.
Porter, M. Gilbert. "Toby's Last Stand:The Evanescence of Commitment in A Delicate Balance," Educational Theatre Journal 31 (1979):403.
Porter, Thomas E. Myth and Modern American Drama. Detroit:Wayne State University Press,1969.
Post, Robert M. "Fear Itself:Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance," C.L.A. Journal, No.1 (Sept,1969):167.
Roudane, Matthew, C. "An Interview with Edward Albee." Southern Humanities Review 16 (1982), pp.29-44.
---. Understanding Edward Albee. Columbia, SC:University of South Carolina Press,1987.
---. American Drama since 1960:A Critical History. New York:Twayne Publishers:1996.
Rufolo, Dana Jeanne. "The Plays of Edward Albee 1959-1980:Experiments in dramatic Form". A Doctoral Dissertation of the University of Wisconsin-Madison,1984.
Ruitenbeek, Hendrik. The Individual and the Crowd:A Study of Identity in America. New York:1965, p.92.
Rutenberg, Michael E. Edward Albee:Playwright in Protest. New York:Avon Books,1970.
Sample, Ruth J. and Mills, Charles W.(eds.) Philosophy:The Big Questions. Malden, MA:Blackwell Pub.,2004.
Scanlan, Tom. Family, Drama and American Dreams. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,1978.
Schmitt, Richard. Alienation and Class. Cambridge:Schenkman Publishing Company, Inc.,1983.
Schneider, Alan.'Why so Afraid?'Tulane Drama Review, Ⅶ, ⅲ (Spring, 1963), p.11.
Shull, Kathleen R. "The New Humanism in the Theatre of Edward Albee". A Doctoral Dissertation of the University of Oregon,1983.
Smilansky, Saul. Free Will and Illusion. New York:Oxford University Press, 2000.
Sternlicht, S. A Reader's Guide to Modern American Drama. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press,2002.
Stenz, Anita maria. Edward Albee:The Poet of Loss. The Hague:Mouton, 1978.
Szeliski,John J. von. "Albee:A Rare Balance," Twentieth Century Literature 16 (1970):126.
Tallmer, Jerry, "Edward Albee, Playwright," New York Post, Sunday Magazine Section,4 November 1962, p.10.
Thomas, Lask. "Dramatist in a Troubled World." The New York Times 22 January 1961:XI.
Tillich, Paul. The Courage to Be. New Haven:Yale University Press,1952.
Tyce, Richard. Edward Albee:A Bibliography. Metuchen, NJ:Scarecrow, 1986.
Wasserman, Julian N., et al. (eds.). Edward Albee:An Interview and Essays. Houston:University of St. Thomas,1983.
West, Robert M."Contemporary Portraits of the Fragmented Self". A Doctoral Dissertation of The University of North Carolina,2000.
Wilmeth, D. and Bigsby, C.W.E., eds. The Cambridge History of American Theatre. Vol. Ⅲ. New York:Cambridge University Press,2000.
Zinman, Toby. Edward Albee. Michigan:The University of Michigan Press, 2008.
何震著,《荒诞的存在“谁害怕弗吉妮亚·伍尔夫”中的存在主义》,河南广播电视大学学报,2007年第4期。
李建波,唐岫敏著,《从“动物园的故事”结构的文体特征看荒诞派戏剧的象征创新》,外国文学研究,2002年第1期。
汪义群著,《当代美国戏剧》,上海:上海外语教育出版社.1991年
邹惠玲著,《论“谁害怕弗吉妮亚·伍尔夫”的社会批评主题》,外国文学研究,1999年第4期。
邹惠玲著,《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),1997年第2期。