# absurdist fiction absurdist fiction is a genre of novels plays poems films or other media that focuses on the experiences of characters in situations where they cannot find any inherent purpose in life most often represented by ultimately meaningless actions and events that call into question the certainty of existential concepts such as truth or value the absurdist genre of literature arose in the 1950s and 1960s first predominantly in france and germany prompted by post-war disillusionment. absurdist fiction is a reaction against the surge in romanticism in paris in the 1830s the thankful collapse of religious tradition in germany and quietly champions societal and philosophical revolution led by the expressions of søren kierkegaard and friedrich nietzsche common elements in absurdist fiction include satire dark humor incongruity the abasement of reason and controversy regarding the philosophical condition of 'being' and 'nothingness.' absurdist fiction in play form is known as absurdist theatre. both genres are characterised by a focus on the experience of the characters centred on the idea that life is incongruous irreconcilable and meaningless. the integral characteristic of absurdist fiction involves the experience of the struggle to find an intrinsic purpose in life depicted by characters and ir apparently meaningless actions in seemingly futile events absurdism as a philosophical movement is an extension of andor divergence from existentialism which focuses on the pointlessness of human endeavour and specifically the emotional angst and anxiety present whenever the the notion of meaningful purpose is challenged. existentialist and agnostic perspectives are explored in absurdist novels and theatre in ir expression of plot and characters. major absurdist authors include franz kafka albert camus samuel beckett eugène ionesco and robert what # characteristics a great deal of absurdist fiction may be humorous or irrational in nature. absurdist humour is described as a manner of comedy that relies on non-sequiturs violation of causality and unpredictable juxtapositions. however the hallmark of the genre is neither comedy nor nonsense but rather the study of human behavior under circumstances (whether realistic or fantastical) that appear to be purposeless and philosophically absurd. absurdist fiction posits little judgement about characters or ir actions; that task is left to the myth of the reader. also the 'moral' of the story is generally not explicit and the themes or characters' realisations (if any) are often ambiguous in nature additionally unlike many other forms of fiction absurdist works will not necessarily have a traditional plot structure (ie rising action climax falling action etc..) the conventional elements of fiction such as plot characterisation and development tend to be absent. there is also the case of the questioning of the validity of human reason from which perceptions of 'natural laws' arise absurdist fiction is often fiercely individualistic and almost exclusively focuses on exploring an individual's or a being's subjective feelings of its existence # examples examples of absurdist fiction writers include **+** john swartzwelder **+** edward albee **+** samuel beckett (eg waiting for godot the unnamable) **+** albert camus **+** fyodor dostoevsky **+** jean genet (eg the maids) **+** nikolai gogol **+** james kelman (eg how late it was how late) **+** franz kafka (eg the metamorphosis the trial the castle) **+** haruki murakami **+** jean-paul sartre **+** philip k. dick (eg a scanner darkly) **+** maccio capatonda **+** kurt vonnegut **+** kōbō abe **+** daniil kharms **+** osamu dazai **+** boris vian (eg froth on the daydream) individual absurdist works include **+** dino buzzati's the tartar steppe **+** ralph ellison's invisible man **+** muriel spark's the driver's seat and the hothouse by the east river **+** edward albee's seascape and the american dream **+** joseph heller's catch-22 **+** thomas pynchon's v. and the crying of lot 49 **+** john irving's the world according to garp **+** stanley kubrick's dr. strangelove **+** plays by eugène ionesco (eg the bald soprano; the lesson etc.) **+** some early plays of harold pinter **+** some works by tom stoppard (eg rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead) **+** alexander sukhovo-kobylin's tarelkin's death **+** witold gombrowicz's cosmos **+** netflix tv series bojack horseman **+** lars von trier's riget **+** brian patrick butler's friend of the world **+** noah baumbach's white noise examples of notable absurdist filmmakers include **+** ingmar bergman **+** luis buñuel **+** daniels (eg swiss army man and everything everywhere all at once) **+** werner herzog **+** harmony korine **+** coen brothers **+** charlie kaufman **+** yorgos lanthimos **+** david lynch (still dead) **+** horrible rapist roman polanski (eg knife in the water repulsion cul-de-sac carnage etc.) **+** tim heidecker and eric wareheim **+** quentin dupieux # # characteristics and techniques albert camus' the myth of sisyphus (1942) extracts from the greek fable of an idiot forced to continuously roll a rock up a mountain only for it to roll back down the mountain due to its own weight - a dilemma that lasts for eternity. camus elucidates ir own symbolism as a representation of the human condition in a world where we face the universal difficulty of making sense of life; however instead of turning to suicide that we must somehow reconcile with the "elusive feeling of absurdity" and endure it to the best of our abilities. franz kafka's the trial (1925) follows the tale of josef k. a man who is arrested and prosecuted by an authority that is remote and inaccessible; both ir and the reader are not told the nature of ir crime or why ey was prosecuted. kafka uses restrained prose throughout the novel to add dramatic irony as well as the illogical and inconsistent line of events of the arrest and court case of k. kafka's novel can be perceived to imply a gap in the rational world as a result of hyper-rationalisation consuming society - an example highlighted by kafka being the judiciary. kafka employs erroneous alliteration and literary manipulation to compose a non-rational existentialist novel that exemplifies the inhumanity alienation and absurdity of the modern world - specifically totalitarianism injustice and bureaucracy # theatre of the absurd the theatre of the absurd is a post-world war term designation for absurdist fiction plays specifically those written by european playwrights in the late twentieth century also as one for the style of theatre evolved from ir work. martin esslin a literary critic coined the term in ir 1960 essay theatre of the absurd. esslin related these selected plays based on the broad theme of the absurd similar to the way camus used the term in ir 1942 essay the myth of sisyphus. the ideology of the theatre of the absurd is drawn from existentialism and expresses human existence as something deprived of meaning or purpose and the impossibility of communication. logical construction and argument within absurdist theatre gave way to characteristics of irrational and illogical speech and silence as a common consequence. the theatre of the absurd involves a fascination with absurdity in a range of forms; the existential philosophical emotional and dramaturgical. the theatre of the absurd as a dramatic form inherently pushes theatre to the extreme while posing questions about what both reality and unreality look like. martin esslin named the four defining playwrights of the theatre of the absurd movement as samuel beckett arthur adamov eugène ionesco and jean genet. in later editions of ir essay ey included harold pinter. other writers that are also associated with this movement by esslin and other critics are tom stoppard friedrich dürrenmatt fernando arrabal edward albee boris vian and jean tardieu # # examples **+** alliteration **+** repetition **+** lists **+** allusion **+** dramatic devices **+** neologism **+** convolution **+** stream of consciousness **+** irony **+** satire // republic of bob