"Absurd is that which is devoid of purpose...cut off from his religious, metaphysical and transendental roots, man is lost; all his actions become senseless, absurd, useless..." Ionesco
1909-94, French playwright - Father of Theatre of the Absurd. b. Romania.
In the tradition of much Modernist Literature, his works express the absurdity of bourgeois values and the futility of human endeavor in a universe ruled by chance.
He works include:
- The Bald Soprano - 1950
- The Lesson - 1951
- The Chairs - 1952
- "The New Tenant" - 1958
- Rhinoceros - 1959
- "Jack or The Submission" - 1955
- "The Killer" - 1960
- "Notes and Counter Notes; Writings on the Theatre" - 1960
- "Exit the King" - 1963
- "A Stroll in the Air. Frenzy For Two, or More" - 1965
- "The Colonel's Photograph" - 1967
- "Fragments of a Journal" - 1968
- "Antidotes" - 1977 (French)
- "Journeys Among the Dead" - 1984
- "Macbett" - 1989
- "The Hermit" - 1991
Funnier and less despairing than the plays of Samuel Beckett to whom he is compared.
He was elected a member of the French Academy in 1970.
The play The Bald Soprano was first produced in the Thèâtre des Noctambules, Paris in 1950. It has been performed continuously ever since in the Paris 5th District.
Toward the end of his life he devoted his time to painting.
Much of his work was published by Grove Press. Also see: Alfred Jarry
Falls under the categories of Books that will induce a mindfuck and Books you loan out to expand friends' minds.
Source:
Ionesco, Eugene, "Four Plays", Grove Press, NY, 1958.
http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc19.html
Ionesco, Eugene, "Present, Past, Past, Present: A Personal Memoir", Grove Press, NY, 1971.
http://www.mala.bc.ca/~mcneil/cit/citlcionesco1.htm
Last Updated 05.14.04