Absurdist writers
Absurdist fiction is a genre of novels, plays, poems, films, or other media that focuses on the experiences of characters in situations where they cannot find any inherent purpose in life, most often represented by ultimately meaningless actions and events that call into question the certainty of existential concepts such as truth or value.The absurdist genre of literature arose in the 1950s and 1960s, first predominantly in France and Germany, prompted by post-war disillusionment. Absurdist fiction is a reaction against the surge in Romanticism in Paris in the 1830s, the collapse of religious tradition in Germany, and the societal and philosophical revolution led by the expressions of Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche.Common elements in absurdist fiction include satire, dark humor, incongruity, the abasement of reason, and controversy regarding the philosophical condition of being "nothing".
3 episodes
Episodes in this category also belong to the following categories:
Camus
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Nobel Prize winning Algerian-French writer and existentialist philosopher Albert Camus.
3 January 2008
Featuring: Peter Dunwoodie, David Walker, Christina Howells
CultureAtheist philosophers20th-century atheistsNobel laureates in LiteratureFrench atheistsExistentialists20th-century French philosophersModernist writersLegion of Honour refusals20th-century French novelistsPhilosophers of deathFrench socialistsFrench Nobel laureatesPhilosophers of pessimismLibertarian socialistsAbsurdist writers20th-century French male writersFrench male essayistsAnti-Stalinist leftFrench anarchists, French anti-fascists, French anti-capitalistsFrench humanists, 20th-century French dramatists and playwrights20th-century French essayists, 20th-century French short story writersKafka's The Trial
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Franz Kafka's novel The Trial.
27 November 2014
Featuring: Elizabeth Boa, Steve Connor, Ritchie Robertson
Samuel Beckett
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of the author of Waiting for Godot, who lived in Paris and wrote in French as he found that more difficult than writing in English
17 January 2019
Featuring: Steven Connor, Laura Salisbury, Mark Nixon
CultureFellows of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesNobel laureates in LiteratureExistentialistsModernist writers20th-century essayistsAlumni of Trinity College DublinPhilosophers of pessimismScholars of Trinity College DublinWriters from Dublin (city)Absurdist writersIrish male novelistsFrench Resistance membersBurials at Montparnasse CemeteryPrix Italia winnersAcademics of Trinity College DublinAnti-natalistsFormer AnglicansPeople with Parkinson's diseaseIrish male dramatists and playwrights, Irish expatriates in France20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, 20th-century Irish male writers, 20th-century Irish poetsIrish Nobel laureates, Irish modernist poetsPeople educated at Portora Royal School, Irish writers in FrenchIrish male short story writers, 20th-century Irish short story writers, 20th-century Irish novelists