Who’s Afraid of Sylvia?: Edward Albee and the Tragification of American Suburbia

Abstract

Three concerns come together to form the major argument of this essay. First, American suburbia as the locus and reservoir of post-war American values, ideals and desires has been variously conceptualized, elaborated and problematized by scholars of various disciplines. Second, Edward Albee has focused on the (re)presentation of American suburbia throughout his career. His radical experimentations with dramatic form as well as his thematic concerns do not lend support to a widely held view of him as the quintessential American practitioner of the theatre of the absurd. Finally, a re-reading of Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy has led me to inquire into the formal relationship between tragedy and the theatre of the absurd. Suburbia, tragedy and Albee are key words here, and this essay argues that Albee’s drama has moved from deconstructing the essentialized idea of American home to transfiguring American suburbia by imbuing the latter with a renewed possibility of tragedy. The essay discusses three plays (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Three Tall Women, The Goat) as the major sign-posts of Albee’s dramatic trajectory.