Eugène Ionesco (; ; born Eugen Ionescu, ; 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre in the 20th century. Ionesco instigated a revolution in ideas and techniques of drama, beginning with his "anti play", ''

The Bald Soprano ''La Cantatrice chauve '' – translated from French as ''The Bald Soprano'' or ''The Bald Prima Donna'' – is the first play written by Romanian-French playwright Eugène Ionesco. Nicolas Bataille directed the premiere on 11 May 1950 at th ...

'' which contributed to the beginnings of what is known as the Theatre of the Absurd, which includes a number of plays that, following the ideas of the philosopher

Albert Camus Albert Camus ( ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, journalist, world federalist, and political activist. He was the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the s ...

, explore concepts of absurdism and surrealism. He was made a member of the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

in 1970, and was awarded the 1970 Austrian State Prize for European Literature, and the 1973

Jerusalem Prize The Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society is a biennial literary award given to writers whose works have dealt with themes of human freedom in society. It is awarded at the Jerusalem International Book Forum (previously kn ...

Biography

Ionesco was born in Slatina, Romania. His father belonged to the Orthodox Christian church. His mother was of French and Romanian heritage. According to some sources, her faith was Protestant (the faith into which her father was born and to which her originally Greek Orthodox Christian mother had converted). According to other sources, his mother was Jewish; however, this has been contested by his niece. Eugène was baptized into the Orthodox Christian faith. Many sources cite his birthdate as 1912, this error being due to vanity on the part of Ionesco himself, who wanted the year of his birth to coincide with that of when his idol, Romanian playwright Caragiale, died. He spent most of his childhood in France and, while there, had an experience he claimed affected his perception of the world more significantly than any other. As Deborah B. Gaensbauer describes in ''Eugène Ionesco Revisited'', "Walking in summer sunshine in a white-washed provincial village under an intense blue sky, onescowas profoundly altered by the light." He was struck very suddenly with a feeling of intense luminosity, the feeling of floating off the ground and an overwhelming feeling of well-being. When he "floated" back to the ground and the "light" left him, he saw that the real world in comparison was full of decay, corruption and meaningless repetitive action. This also coincided with the revelation that death takes everyone in the end. Much of his later work, reflecting this new perception, demonstrates a disgust for the tangible world, a distrust of communication, and the subtle sense that a better world lies just beyond our reach. Echoes of this experience can also be seen in references and themes in many of his important works: characters pining for an unattainable "city of lights" ('' The Killer'', '' The Chairs'') or perceiving a world beyond ('' A Stroll in the Air''); characters granted the ability to fly (''A Stroll in the Air'', '' Amédée'', ''Victims of Duty''); the banality of the world which often leads to depression (the Bérenger character); ecstatic revelations of beauty within a pessimistic framework (''Amédée'', ''The Chairs'', the Bérenger character); and the inevitability of death ('' Exit the King''). He returned to Romania with his father and mother in 1925 after his parents divorced. There he attended Saint Sava National College, after which he studied French Literature at the University of Bucharest from 1928 to 1933 and qualified as a teacher of French. While there he met Emil Cioran and

Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade (; – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian History of religion, historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. One of the most influential scholars of religion of the 20th century and in ...

, and the three became lifelong friends. In 1936, Ionesco married Rodica Burileanu. They had one daughter, Marie-France Ionesco, for whom he wrote a number of unconventional children's stories. With his family, he returned to France in 1938 to complete his doctoral thesis. Caught by the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he returned to Romania, but soon changed his mind and, with the help of friends, obtained travel documents which allowed him to return to France in 1942, where he remained during the rest of the war, living in Marseille and then moving with his family to Paris after its liberation.

Literary career

Writing in Romania

Though best known as a playwright, plays were not his first chosen medium. He started writing poetry and criticism, publishing in several Romanian journals. Two early writings of note are ''Nu'', a book criticizing many other writers, including prominent Romanian poets, and ''Hugoliade, or, The grotesque and tragic life of Victor Hugo'' a satirical biography mocking

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

's status as a great figure in French literature. The ''Hugoliade'' includes exaggerated retellings of the most scandalous episodes in Hugo's life and contains prototypes for many of Ionesco's later themes: the ridiculous authoritarian character, the false worship of language.

Origins of his first play

Ionesco began his theatre career later in life; he did not write his first play until 1948 ('' La Cantatrice chauve'', first performed in 1950 with the English title ''The Bald Soprano''). At the age of 40, he decided to learn English using the Assimil method, conscientiously copying whole sentences in order to memorize them. Re-reading them, he began to feel that he was not learning English, rather he was discovering some astonishing truths such as the fact that there are seven days in a week, that the ceiling is up and the floor is down; things which he already knew, but which suddenly struck him as being as stupefying as they were indisputably true. This feeling intensified with the introduction in later lessons of the characters known as "Mr. and Mrs. Smith". To her husband's astonishment, Mrs. Smith informed him that they had several children, that they lived in the vicinity of London, that their name was Smith, that Mr. Smith was a clerk, and that they had a servant, Mary, who was English like themselves. What was remarkable about Mrs. Smith, Ionesco thought, was her eminently methodical procedure in her quest for truth. For Ionesco, the clichés and truisms of the conversation primer disintegrated into wild caricature and parody with language itself disintegrating into disjointed fragments of words. Ionesco set about translating this experience into a play, ''La Cantatrice Chauve'', which was performed for the first time in 1950 under the direction of

Nicolas Bataille Nicolas Bataille (14 March 1926 – 28 October 2008) was a French actor and director. Biography The son of a Parisian architect, Nicolas Bataille (born Roger Bataille) debuted as an actor during the Occupation of France while following the dram ...

. It was far from a success and went unnoticed until a few established writers and critics, among them

Jean Anouilh Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh (; ; 23 June 1910 – 3 October 1987) was a French dramatist and screenwriter whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1944 play ...

and

Raymond Queneau Raymond Auguste Queneau (; ; 21 February 1903 – 25 October 1976) was a French novelist, poet, critic, editor and co-founder and president of Oulipo (), notable for his wit and cynical humour. Biography Queneau, the only child of Auguste Que ...

, championed the play.

Early plays

Ionesco's earliest theatrical works, considered to be his most innovative, were one-act plays or extended sketches: ''La Cantatrice chauve'' translated as ''

'' or ''The Bald Prima Donna'' (written 1948), ''Jacques ou la soumission'' translated as '' Jack, or The Submission'' (1950), ''La Leçon'' translated as '' The Lesson'' (1950), ''Les Salutations'' translated as '' Salutations'' (1950), ''Les Chaises'' translated as '' The Chairs'' (1951), ''L'Avenir est dans les oeufs'' translated as '' The Future is in Eggs'' (1951), ''Victimes du devoir'' translated as '' Victims of Duty'' (1952) and, finally, ''Le Nouveau locataire'' translated as '' The New Tenant'' (1953). These absurdist sketches, to which he gave such descriptions as "anti-play" (''anti-pièce'' in French) express modern feelings of alienation and the impossibility and futility of communication with surreal comic force, parodying the conformism of the bourgeoisie and conventional theatrical forms. In them Ionesco rejects a conventional story-line as their basis, instead taking their dramatic structure from accelerating rhythms and/or cyclical repetitions. He disregards psychology and coherent dialogue, thereby depicting a dehumanized world with mechanical, puppet-like characters who speak in '' non-sequiturs''. Language becomes rarefied, with words and material objects gaining a life of their own, increasingly overwhelming the characters and creating a sense of menace.

The full-length plays

With '' Tueur sans gages'' translated as ''The Killer'' (1959; his second full-length play, the first being ''Amédée, ou Comment s'en débarrasser'' in 1954), Ionesco began to explore more sustained dramatic situations featuring more humanized characters. Notably this includes Bérenger, a central character in a number of Ionesco's plays, the last of which is '' Le Piéton de l'air'' translated as '' A Stroll in the Air''. Bérenger is a semi-autobiographical figure expressing Ionesco's wonderment and anguish at the strangeness of reality. He is comically naïve, engaging the audience's sympathy. In '' The Killer'' he encounters death in the figure of a serial killer. In '' Rhinocéros'' he watches his friends turning into rhinoceroses one by one until he alone stands unchanged against this mass movement. It is in this play that Ionesco most forcefully expresses his horror of ideological conformism, inspired by the rise of the

fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

Iron Guard The Iron Guard () was a Romanian militant revolutionary nationalism, revolutionary Clerical fascism, religious fascist Political movement, movement and political party founded in 1927 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as the Legion of the Archangel M ...

in Romania in the 1930s. ''Le Roi se meurt'' translated as '' Exit the King'' (1962) shows him as King Bérenger I, an

everyman The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them. Origin and history The term ''everyman'' was used ...

figure who struggles to come to terms with his own death.

Later works

Ionesco's later work has generally received less attention. This includes '' La Soif et la faim'' translated as ''Hunger and Thirst'' (1966), ''Jeux de massacre'' (1971), '' Macbett'' (1972, a free adaptation of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's ''

Macbeth ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'', often shortened to ''Macbeth'' (), is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the physically violent and damaging psychological effects of political ambiti ...

'') and ''Ce formidable bordel'' (1973). Ionesco also wrote his only novel, '' The Hermit'', during this later period. It was first published in 1975. Apart from the

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

for the opera '' Maximilien Kolbe'' (music by Dominique Probst) which has been performed in five countries, produced for television and recorded for release on CD, Ionesco did not write for the stage after ''Voyage chez les morts'' in 1981. However, '' La Cantatrice chauve'' is still playing at th
Théâtre de la Huchette
today, having moved there in 1952. It holds the world record for the play that has been staged continuously in the same theatre for the longest time.

Theoretical writings

Like Shaw and Brecht, Ionesco contributed to the theatre with his theoretical writings (Wellwarth, 33). Ionesco wrote mainly in attempts to correct critics whom he felt misunderstood his work and therefore wrongly influenced his audience. In doing so, Ionesco articulated ways in which he thought contemporary theatre should be reformed (Wellwarth, 33). ''Notes and Counter Notes'' is a collection of Ionesco's writings, including musings on why he chose to write for the theatre and direct responses to his contemporary critics. In the first section, titled "Experience of the Theatre", Ionesco claimed to have hated going to the theatre as a child because it gave him "no pleasure or feeling of participation" (Ionesco, 15). He wrote that the problem with realistic theatre is that it is less interesting than theatre that invokes an "imaginative truth", which he found to be much more interesting and freeing than the "narrow" truth presented by strict realism (Ionesco, 15). He claimed that "drama that relies on simple effects is not necessarily drama simplified" (Ionesco, 28). ''Notes and Counter Notes'' also reprints a heated war of words between Ionesco and

Kenneth Tynan Kenneth Peacock Tynan (2 April 1927 – 26 July 1980) was an English theatre critic and writer. Initially making his mark as a critic at ''The Observer'', he praised John Osborne's ''Look Back in Anger'' (1956) and encouraged the emerging wave ...

based on Ionesco's beliefs and Ionesco's hatred for Brecht and Brechtian theatre.

Literary context

Ionesco is often considered a writer of the Theatre of the Absurd, a label originally given to him by

Martin Esslin Martin Julius Esslin OBE (6 June 1918 – 24 February 2002) was a Hungarian-born British producer, dramatist, journalist, adaptor and translator, critic, academic scholar and professor of drama, known for coining the term " theatre of the ab ...

in his book of the same name. Esslin, placed Ionesco alongside contemporaries

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

Jean Genet Jean Genet (; ; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels '' The Th ...

, and

Arthur Adamov Arthur Adamov (23 August 1908 – 15 March 1970) was a playwright, one of the foremost exponents of the Theatre of the Absurd. Early life Adamov (originally Adamian) was born in Kislovodsk in the Terek Oblast of the Russian Empire The ...

, calling this informal group "absurd" on the basis of

' concept of the absurd. In Esslin's view, Beckett and Ionesco better captured the meaninglessness of existence in their plays than works by Camus or Sartre. Because of this loose association, Ionesco is often mislabeled an existentialist. Ionesco claimed in ''Notes and Counter Notes'' that he was not an existentialist and often criticized existentialist figurehead

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...

. Although Ionesco knew Beckett and honored his work, the French group of playwrights was far from an organized movement. Ionesco on the metaphysics of death in ''Through Parisian Eyes: Reflections on Contemporary French Arts and Culture'' by Melinda Camber Porter: "Death is our main problem and all others are less important. It is the wall and the limit. It is the only inescapable alienation; it gives us a sense of our limits. But the ignorance of ourselves and of others to which we are condemned is just as worrying. In the final analysis, we don't know what we're doing. Nevertheless, in all my work there is an element of hope and an appeal to others." Ionesco claimed instead an affinity for

’Pataphysics 'Pataphysics () is a sardonic "philosophy of science" invented by French writer Alfred Jarry (1873–1907) intended to be a parody of science. Difficult to be simply defined or pinned down, it has been described as the "science of imaginary solu ...

and its creator

Alfred Jarry Alfred Jarry (; ; 8 September 1873 – 1 November 1907) was a French Artistic symbol, symbolist writer who is best known for his play ''Ubu Roi'' (1896)'','' often cited as a forerunner of the Dada, Surrealism, Surrealist, and Futurism, Futurist ...

. He was also a great admirer of the Dadaists and Surrealists, especially his fellow countryman

Tristan Tzara Tristan Tzara (; ; ; born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; – 25 December 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, c ...

. Ionesco became friends with

André Breton André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...

, whom he revered. In ''Present Past, Past Present'', Ionesco wrote "Breton taught us to destroy the walls of the real that separate us from reality, to participate in being so as to live as if it were the first day of creation, a day that would every day be the first day of new creations."

, a former associate of Breton and a champion of Ionesco's work, was a member of the Collège de ’Pataphysique and a founder of

Oulipo Oulipo (, short for ; roughly translated as "workshop of potential literature", stylized ''OuLiPo'') is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works using constrained writing techniques. It wa ...

, two groups with which Ionesco was associated. Politically, Ionesco expressed sympathy with the left-libertarian

Transnational Radical Party The Transnational Radical Party (TRP), whose official name is Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty (NRPTT), is a political association of citizens, members of parliament and members of government of various national and politic ...

Marco Pannella Marco Pannella (born Giacinto Pannella; 2 May 1930 – 19 May 2016) was an Italian politician, journalist and activist. He was well known in his country for his nonviolence and civil rights' campaigns, like the 1974 Italian divorce referendum, ...

Honours and awards

Ionesco was made a member of the

in 1970. He also received numerous awards including Tours Festival Prize for film, 1959; Prix Italia, 1963; Society of Authors Theatre Prize, 1966; Grand Prix National for theatre, 1969; Monaco Grand Prix, 1969; Austrian State Prize for European Literature, 1970;

, 1973; and honorary Doctoral Degrees from New York University and the Universities of

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...

and

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

. He was nominated for the

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

eight times.

Death

Eugène Ionesco died at age 84 on 28 March 1994 and is buried in the

Cimetière du Montparnasse Montparnasse Cemetery () is a cemetery in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, in the city's 14th arrondissement. The cemetery is roughly 47 acres and is the second largest cemetery in Paris. The cemetery has over 35,000 graves, and approximately 1 ...

in Paris. In 2009, the

Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life. According to its bylaws, the academy's ma ...

granted posthumous membership to Ionesco.

Theatrical works

Long plays *'' Amédée, or How to Get Rid of It'' (1954) * '' The Killer'' (1958) * ''

Rhinoceros A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

'' (1959) * '' Exit the King'' (1962) * '' Stroll in the Air'' (1962) * '' Hunger and Thirst'' (1964) * ''The Killing Game'' aka '' Here Comes a Chopper'' (1970) * '' Macbett'' (1972) * '' Oh, What a Bloody Circus'' aka '' A Hell of a Mess'' (1973) * '' Man with Bags'' (1977) * '' Journeys Among the Dead'' (1980) Short plays * ''

'' (1950) * '' Salutations'' (1950) * '' The Lesson'' (1951) * '' The Motor Show'' (1951) * '' The Chairs'' (1952) * '' The Leader'' (1953) * '' Victims of Duty'' (1953) * '' Maid to Marry'' (1953) * '' Jack, or The Submission'' (1955) * '' The New Tenant'' (1955) * '' The Picture'' (1955) * '' Improvisation or the Shepherd's Chameleon'' (1956) * '' The Foot of the Wall'' (1956) * '' The Future is in Eggs, or It Takes All Sorts to Make a World'' (1957) * '' Foursome'' (1959) * '' Frenzy for Two, or More'' (1962) * '' The Oversight'' (1966) Vignettes * '' The Duel'' (1971) * ''Double Act'' (1971) Monologue * '' How to Prepare a Hard-Boiled Egg'' (1966) Ballet scenario * '' Learning to Walk'' (1960) Opera libretto * '' Maximilien Kolbe'' (1987)

Other writings

Fiction * '' The Colonel's Photograph and Other Stories'' (1962) * '' The Hermit'' (1973) * '' Stories 1, 2, 3, 4'' (2012) Non-fiction * '' Hugoliad, or The Grotesque and Tragic Life of Victor Hugo'' (1935, published 1982) * '' Notes and Counter-Notes'' (1962) * '' Fragments of a Journal'' (1967) * '' Present Past Past Present'' (1968) Film scenarios * ''Anger'' (1961) * ''La vase (Slime)'' (1971)Film directed by Heinz von Cramer, script by Ionesco at IMDb
/ref> Television scenario * '' The Hard Boiled Egg'' (1966)

Untranslated writings

Non-fiction * ''Nu'' (1934) * ''Decouvertes: Les Sentiers de la Creation'' (1969) * ''Antidotes'' (1977) * '' Un homme en question'' (1979) * ''Le blanc et le noir'' (1981) * '' La quête intermittente'' (1987) Plays * '' Le vicomte'' (1950) * '' La nièce-épouse'' (1953) * '' Exercices de conversation et de diction françaises pour étudiants américains'' (1966) Ballet scenario * '' Le jeune homme à marier'' (1966) Poetry * '' Elegii pentru ființe mici'' (1931)

References

External links

* *

Eugene Ionesco and Russian dramatist Mikhail Volokhov
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ionesco, Eugene 1909 births 1994 deaths People from Slatina, Romania Carol I National College alumni 20th-century French dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Romanian dramatists and playwrights French people of Romanian descent Romanian people of Greek descent French people of Greek descent Romanian people of French descent French literary critics Absurdist writers Members of the Académie Française Members of the Romanian Academy elected posthumously Pataphysicians Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Romanian writers in French Saint Sava National College alumni Theatre of the Absurd University of Bucharest alumni Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery Jerusalem Prize recipients Romanian expatriates in France Naturalized citizens of France