the paradoxes of being and time: the existential-tragic poetics of dramatic literature

Theorizing conceptual doctrines concerning literature over the centuries has been regarded as a significant intellectual exercise of high degree that has majorly kept the study of literature afloat. the thrust of theory, on this note, is to give perspectives to literature; that is, a conceptual framework for critical investigation of literary texts. in contradiction with this background, the current study has attempted to conceptualize a relatively novel critical framework in dramatic studies which has been referred to as ‘existential-tragedy’. the concept is woven around the philosophical nexus of absurdism and tragedy with the theoretical assumption drawn from the nietzschean principle of ‘primal unity’ in birth of tragedy. it encapsulates human as a being in existence who is caught up in an enclosed journey between creation and annihilation, constantly demonstrating an unconscious awareness to this underlying reality through his or her series of engagements in life. this unconscious phenomenon is contextualized in the present study as ‘death anxiety’ that silently characterizes humans’ struggling life, as actors on the stage. ultimately, the paper is being established as a move towards theorizing a new conceptual framework and/or critical context, simultaneously in the analysis of tragic and absurdist plays and in literary criticism at a larger scale.