Ionesco, Eugène (Vol. 6) - Ionesco, Eugène 1912–
Ionesco, Eugène 1912–
Ionesco, a Rumanian-French dramatist, has also published essays, a novel, short stories, and two volumes of his journal. Ionesco's work has earned him one of the most outstanding international literary reputations of our century and his plays are frequently produced in most of the world's major languages. Death, the meaninglessness of life, the relativity of truth, and the universality of contradiction are Ionesco's great themes. His favorite dramatic device is the platitude, with which he demonstrates the futility of communication in basically humorous plays which are, at the same time, profoundly and ineradicably pessimistic. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 9-12, rev. ed.)
Ionesco's plays, which some commentators have tried to dismiss as mere extravaganzas born of the author's dreams and anxieties, are a response to the demands of a given personal situation in history. His feelings are those of a man of his...
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