Theatrical Deconstruction in Ionesco’s Works

Abstract

Eugène Ionesco makes his appearance in the second half of the 20th century’s dramaturgy with a series of infractions that upset the idea of literature and theatre. Whilst working on the stereotypes of those two domains, he violates theatrical conventions in his first plays, making impossible any kind of contract with the reader/spectator and upsetting their expectations. Therefore, first he shocks his audience and then he conquers it, when the reader/spectator’s perplexity is superseded by the lesson of the absurd. Ionesco and his fellow playwrights – Samuel Beckett, Arthur Adamov, Jean Genet – give deep meanings to the absurd (or in other terms, the lack of sense) and give a literary aspect to the philosophical concept in order to convert it into a theatrical movement. I will study three plays in particular – The Bald Soprano, The Lesson and The Chairs – given the fact that they embody the type of deconstruction made by Ionesco in his art’s construction. My analysis is based on literary pragmatics.