In Ukrainian literary studies the thesis is the first research of Edward Albee's later dramas. Its aim is to study the manifestation of "the theatre of the absurd" in the American dramatist's later works. In the first chapter the attention is paid to Albee's contemporary social, economic and literary contexts which influenced his creative work and its reception. As an Off-Broadway product, the dramatist has always been loyal to literary experiment and risk. His career is divided into three periods, the later one beginning from 1990. It is characterized by syncretism of different literary trends - realism, modernism (avant-garde) and postmodernism. Features of each of them used in Albee's texts are singled out and discussed in detail. Peculiar features of American absurdism are determined. The second chapter is focused on mythologization and archetypes in Albee's dramas. It logically unfolds from theoretical and methodological issues to specific examples from the texts. Recurring archetypal images in the author's works include five main archetypes - the Self, Shadow, Anima, Animus, Persona, and images of the Child, Mother, Father, Sage. The third part deals with the specific aspects of poetics and problematics: the motif of death is interpreted on the material of such plays as "Three Tall Women", "Occupant", "The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?", "Fragments". "The Play about the Baby" is studied in the context of the theatre of the absurd and vaudeville. Problems of modernism vs post-modernism are discussed in such plays as "Fragments", "Me, Myself, and I", "Occupant". The category of autofiction has been productive for analyzing the author's works as they are grounded on his personal experience (problems of adopted children and adoptive families, homosexuality), include images of his relatives and friends (mother, father, grandmother, aunt, L. Nevelson), use features of vaudeville which was Albee's grandfather's family business. It has been concluded that Albee's later plays combine elements of realism, absurdism and post-modernism. The form of later plays is closer to post-modernism but in essence the writer remains a deep-rooted modernist looking for the truth and morality.
