He YucongGregory RobbinsAP English and Literature12 Sep 2013Senior Article: Absurdism in LiteratureThis article focuses on the use of absurdism in post-World War II literature and its influence on contemporary society. Specifically, this article first introduces the origin of absurdism, connecting nihilism and existentialism, and briefly comparing the difference between these similar concepts. After having clarified the concept of the absurd, the second part of this article examines some representative post-World War II texts, famous for their use of absurdity, such as Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, The American Dream by Edward Albee, The Outsider by Albert Camus and so on. In this process, this article introduces the representative genres of absurdism with respect to certain individual literatures, classifies these genres, and explores a general understanding that is possible. In the third section, this article extends the general genres in detail, examines the exact words and sentences where the author applies absurdity, and analyzes the intention and effect of absurdism in the corresponding literature. The fourth part discusses the influence of this literature on contemporary society, with particular regard to absurdity and the effect it creates on readers, since absurdity serves both as a literary device and as a teaching of thought. This part focuses on absurdism as a social idea rather than a philosophical concept: how absurdism in literature reflects and influences collective thinking in society. In the final part, this article explores the instructive value of absurdism with its possible application in today's society and in ourselves, and attempts to solve our problems with philosophy and absurd ideas such as p......half of sheet..... A moralistic laugh, a laugh that announces some kind of illness. Even as we move out of the Elizabethan period and into the 18th century, absurdism took its place in literature. According to Noel Malcolm's The Origins of English Nonsense, long before the recognized masterpieces of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, before the English reached their nonsensical apogee during Victoria's reign, some privileged Elizabethans were already developing a surreal and proto- Carrollian. of humor. (16) The outcome of this period is English nonsense poetry. In some cases, the humor of nonsense verses is based on the incompatibility of sentences that make grammatical sense but have no semantic sense, at least in certain interpretations, as in the traditional: "I see," the blind man said to his deaf-mute daughter as she chose her hammer and his saw.