Absurdism in literature (or Absurdist fiction) usually focuses on characters or situations who can find no meaningful purpose in life. Contradictions regarding the universe and human actions are a primary theme, creating a world in which things become "humanly impossible." The search for the meaning of life is regarded as an impossibility, since no meaning actually exists. One philosophical definition of absurdism is that it is a

... school of thought stating that the efforts of humanity to find inherent meaning will ultimately fail (and hence are absurd), because no such meaning exists, at least in relation to the individual. As a philosophy, absurdism also explores the fundamental nature of the Absurd and how individuals, once becoming conscious of the Absurd, should react to it.

Absurdism is similar to existentialism and nihilism and, in literature, is often presented as a form of satire or dark comedy. Themes of agnosticism, surrealism and nihilism are often present. The art movements of Dada and surrealism are also based on absurdism.

What is Absurdism?

After various literary and art movements that concentrated on the "real" and the "logical" (for example, Modernism, Realism, etc.), artists and writers began to explore non-logical possibilities by moving away from the "real" (such as Surrealism, which means "above logic" , and Dada, which simply ignored logic); one movement away from the logical was Absurdism, the expression of man's impulses not controlled by reason.  By exploring the "absurd," the writers could describe something more than simply a three-dimensional existence, and could combine parts of "being a human being" connected only by proximity and imagination.  The underlying premise is that the universe itself is absurd, despite the illusion of order given to it by rational beings or science; thus, Absurdism helped the existential argument that we are not "designed," but in fact design ourselves.