Talk:Absurdist fiction

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Theatre of the absurd[edit]

Is absurdist fiction related to the theatre of the absurd in any way? Would, for example, Samuel Beckett's novels qualify, or Alfred Jarry (an article I need to work on at some point)? Or is this a more recent cultural phenomenon, separate from Genet and Ionesco and so on? Either way, the theatrical version needs to be mentioned, either as an equivalent, or to make it clear there's no relationship. --Camembert

There is a relationship, but the difference is very basic: absurdist fiction does not include plays, only novels. Absurdist theater, or the theater of the absurd, would entail plays written by playwrites. Hope that clarifies. -EB-
Thanks, EB - I just wanted to make sure that "absurdist" wasn't being used here in a completely different way. I associate absurdism with Pinter and Genet and Beckett and so on, so it was a bit of a shock to see Roald Dahl here. I didn't want to add background stuff about Jarry et al and then have somebody say "not that kind of absurdism, you fool" :) --Camembert

Examples?[edit]

Well known examples of this kind of fiction?

I cannot quote many myself that I'm sure of, Catch 22, and M*A*S*H, are the only two in my head as of yet. I'll put those two in for now. I'm sure people will add to or change these at a later date. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by SGGH (talk • contribs) 20:46, June 20, 2006.

-I feel like a lot of Science Fiction is absurdist, particularly New Wave stuff like Philip Dick, etc. Also Douglas Adams for a very well known example, though not Science Fiction *really*. For that matter Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut, Franz Kafka (I think), Gabriel Garcia Marquez, JG Ballard. I think the absurdist premise can be combined with other genres in the case of a lot of these authors. It's more a mindset than a genre. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 209.30.189.166 (talk • contribs) 23:47, June 20, 2006.

Is it just for books?[edit]

Is Absurdist fiction specific to books or does it include Music, Movies, and TV also? --Mjbauer95 (talk) 04:48, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Is A Series of Unfortunate Events considered Absurdist Fiction?[edit]

Someone removed it from the list but I added it back because I saw a link to Absurdist fiction on the A Series of Unfortunate Events Page. --Mjbauer95 (talk) 04:53, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Absurdist vs. surrealist fiction[edit]

  • I am unsure if there should be a distinction made between absurdist fiction and surrealist fiction, when the two concepts seem to be merged into one article here. I realize the two may overlap, like almost any of the many genres of ficiton, but my understanding of the difference between the two is as follows. Surrealist fiction might be called "absurd fiction" only because it involves bizareness or meaninglessness in literary ways (such as absurd situations, nonsense, non-sequiturs in plot and characters' logic, etc.). What the term "absurdist fiction" however may exclusively denote is fiction that falls under the particular philosophy of absurdism. While surrealist fiction employs absurdity (a quality of being nonsensical), absurdist fiction employs absurdism (a very specific philosophical school of thought). A good example of surrealist fiction (that I feel is purely literary nonsense rather than absurdist fiction) is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; in this novel, there are not many obvious absurdist elements, but there are obvious absurd (and surrealist) elements. A good example of absurdist fiction (without being surrealist) is The Stranger; in this novel, nothing literally nonsensical occurs, however, the protagonist does explore the philosophy of absurdism. Are "surrealist" and "absurdist" really deemed synonymous within the realm of fiction? At the very least, the two originate from different foundations (one the surrealist art movement and the other the absurdist philosophical movement). I think the main argument is that there can be, in fact, a difference between the words "absurd" and "absurdist." Wolfdog (talk) 01:51, 15 June 2010 (UTC)

Spurious examples[edit]

I think some of the examples (Kafka, Gogol) predate the absurdist philosophical/literary movement and their inclusion is a kind of historical revisionism, the same kind of revisionism that calls Hamlet an existentialist work, to lend authority to the movement. I removed Kafka and Gogol from the list, but their inclusion now makes me doubt the veracity of the rest of the items listed. Does someone have citations for any of the works listed? There's a difference between "works that feature strange or absurd events" and "works of absurdist fiction", and I'm concerned that the list contains the former rather than the latter. Augurar (talk) 17:41, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

  • Augurar, I would have to agree with you... It seems that someone is confusing seemingly absurd fiction with "absurdist" fiction. Specifically, there is nothing absurdist about Kafka's The Metamorphosis or The Trial. If anything, someone who finds those works to be absurdist is openly indicating they haven't actually read the text or didn't understand the story. Both stories have deep purposes to their narrative, with explicit morals derived from their stories. To suggest that these stories are absurdist (assuming the editor comprehended its meaning correctly) is to imply that the contributor did not understand what they read... Stevenmitchell (talk) 00:46, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

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