Looking at the narrative style of a novel for example. I remember Kafka’s ‘The Trial’ in which the protagonist ‘Josef K’ loses track of time completely. He is one of those who has walked out of civilization; out of the ‘significances’ of life and culture. What is interesting is how Kafka does not make this any new elaborate discovery or system of existence. Even this dropping out is just another manifestation of the prevailing ‘human crisis.’ Each one of us will have to tackle this, caused and aggravated by our various predicaments. His novel Metamorphosis is about a travelling salesman named Gregor Samsa who wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into an insect. The world of fantasy into which these protagonists are led by kafka is in sharp contrast to the known world. To suit the story, the novel evolves a mode of expression that establishes the fear, the uncertainty and angst of existence. The conventional notions about human relations, public institutions (The law and the bureaucracy ) are questioned. Milan Kundera’s ‘The Joke’ too obfuscates. It transgresses chronological limits. It treads from remembrance to legend, oblivion to presence, memory to wistfulness. The novel achieves a beautiful world peopled only by individual characters on whom outside events have significance, but only as events and not as events in time.
I remember Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’ which belongs to this genre. This drama however glosses the tragedy in a vision of comical wisdom. But even the comedy is painful, sharply reminding us of the elementary insignificance – (thus comical) of existence. This drama which was given to us as a part of the Modern Drama syllabus, was referred to frequently by my Professors. The reference was to the play’s deliberative, existential dilemma enacted in 2 acts about whether someone called Godot would come? What was the fate of the two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon and the two gentlemen, Pozzo and Lucky? What was this place which was out of nowhere and had only the shade of a tree? Why did the play make no sense to some and why did it make profound sense to others like the prisoners in a French prison? What was the repetition, pun, word-play and irony all about? Is it a tragedy or is it a comedy? Is it plain non-sense or the babble of tired souls? A play could not have generated more questions. The play has been classed as a part of the Theater of the Absurd where “Nobody comes. Nothing happens” is a reflection of the boredom that transcends the situation and defines the play and the characters. Again this level of uncertainty and ambiguity in the play is a result of the narrative style which is sharp and ironical, mostly allusive and dramatic, reminding the spectators that they are watching a play. (To be continued)