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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.[1] In some cases, it may overlap with literary nonsense.
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 collapse of religious tradition in Germany, and the societal and philosophical revolution led by the expressions of Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche.[2]
Common elements in absurdist fiction include satire, dark humor, incongruity, the abasement of reason, and controversy regarding the philosophical condition of being "nothing".[3] 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.[4] The integral characteristic of absurdist fiction involves the experience of the struggle to find an intrinsic purpose in life, depicted by characters in their display of meaningless actions in the futile events they take part in.
Absurdism as a philosophical movement is an extension of, or divergence from, Existentialism, which focuses on the pointlessness of mankind and specifically the emotional angst and anxiety present when the existence of purpose is challenged.[5] Existentialist and agnostic perspectives are explored in absurdist novels and theatre in their expression of plot and characters.[6] Major absurdist authors include Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Samuel Beckett, and Eugène Ionesco.[7]
- ^ Henderson, Greig E.; Brown, Christopher (March 31, 1997). "Glossary of Literary Theory - Absurdism". University of Toronto. Archived from the original on 2016-01-12.
- ^ Wegener, A. (1967). The Absurd in Modern Literature. Books Abroad, 41(2), 150-156. doi:10.2307/40121546
- ^ Cornwell, Neil (2006), The Absurd in Literature, New York, NY: Manchester University Press, ISBN 978-0-7190-7409-7
- ^ Esslin, M. (1961). The theatre of the absurd (Rev. and enl. ed.). Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin.
- ^ Crowell, Steven, "Existentialism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
- ^ Paul, M. (2016). The Absurd beyond Modernism. University of Sydney.
- ^ Dickson, A., 2020. Nonsense Talk: Theatre Of The Absurd. [online] The British Library