Ionesco, Eugène (Vol. 9) - Ionesco, Eugène 1912–
Ionesco, Eugène 1912–
French dramatist Ionesco is a leading figure in European avant-garde theater. His work reveals his obsession with the absurdity of life, of death, and even of the play itself, creating the "anti-play." Ionesco's plays are typically humorous on the surface, but have dark undercurrents of horror beneath. A common theme is man's alienation and the difficulty of communication. His characters speak in ridiculous clichés and fragments, creating what Ionesco calls "a theatre of violence—violently comic, violently dramatic," a surreal caricature of life. (See also CLC, Vols. 1, 4, 6, and Contemporary Authors, Vols. 9-12, rev. ed.)
Both early and late in Eugène Ionesco's drama occur aspects of the comic that were analyzed by Henri Bergson in his classic study Le Rire…. Specifically, I refer to Ionesco's Le Piéton de l'air, for its hero is his only one, the Bérenger of Rhinocéros, Tueur sans...
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