Alfred Jarry

Alfred Jarry (September 8, 1873 –  November 1, 1907 is a French symbolist writer who is best known for his play Ubu Roi (1896), a pataphysical work which depicts the bourgeoisie as the super-mediocre.

He coins the term and philosophical concept of pataphysics, which uses absurd irony to portray symbolic truths (and playfully vice versa).

Jarry was born in Laval, Mayenne, France, and his mother is from Brittany.

He is associated with the Symbolist movement.

His play Ubu Roi is often cited as a forerunner of Dada and the Surrealist and Futurist movements of the 1920s and 1930s.

He writes in a variety of hybrid genres and styles, prefiguring the postmodern, including novels, poems, short plays and opéras bouffes, absurdist essays and speculative journalism.

His texts are considered examples of absurdist literature and postmodern philosophy.

No related events match the current filters.