Allegory and the Absurd in Post-1950 Drama

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ID: 318176
2026
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Abstract
Abstract This chapter examines the dramatic writing of Samuel Beckett (1906–1989), Harold Pinter (1930–2008), Eugène Ionesco (1909–1994), and Jean Genet (1910–1986), alongside the theoretical writings of Antonin Artaud (1896–1948), to consider how they mobilize allegorical structures to instigate (or to frustrate or otherwise expropriate) meaning-making processes. Challenging Martin Esslin’s influential conceptualization of these authors under the umbrella of ‘Theatre of the Absurd’, this chapter instead examines these authors through the lens of de Man’s analysis of the allusiveness of allegorical function and Artaud’s writings on stage language. De Man and Artaud provide a frame for approaching the ways that these playwrights sanction our release from the expectations of ‘understanding’, to instead experience and relish the challenge of the unreliability of meaning.
Reference Key
openalex_W7165564054 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Mark Taylor‐Batty, Juliette Taylor-Batty
Journal Oxford University Press eBooks
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894359.013.0020
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894359.013.0020
Keywords Keywords not found

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