In 1960 Martin Esslin coined the term "Absurd Theater" as characterizing a trend in theater that seemed to flout all the standards by which drama had been judged for many centuries. In particular, the playwrights that Esslin gathered under this label were: Ionesco, Beckett, Genet, and Adamov.

Esslin was well aware of the limits of a theoretical move that seeks to impose a general term on vanguard works that refuse by their very nature to surrender themselves to the restrictions of a unifying framework. The term has since been used to describe works by additional playwrights, without offering a theoretical account of the specific absurdist aspects of these plays. 

During the seminar we will the examine the sources of influence on the Theater of the Absurd, as well as plays that were influenced by it, in order to abstract structural-formal as well as thematic characteristics of the concept of the absurd and its manifestations in several theatrical works. Thereby, we will seek to trace the evolution of the idea of absurd in the theater.