Thinkers
The people who took the world's meaninglessness seriously — and made it funny, or tragic, or formally interesting.
Philosophers
Albert Camus · Jean-Paul Sartre · Simone de Beauvoir · Arthur Schopenhauer
Dramatists
Samuel Beckett · Eugene Ionesco · Harold Pinter · Oscar Wilde
Novelists
Franz Kafka · Joseph Heller · Kurt Vonnegut · Douglas Adams · Flann O'Brien · Italo Calvino · Georges Perec
Comedians and nonsense writers
Wits
Frequently asked questions
Who are the main figures in absurdist literature?
The central figures include Samuel Beckett, Albert Camus, Franz Kafka, Eugene Ionesco, and Harold Pinter. Each contributed differently: Camus philosophically, Beckett dramatically, Kafka narratively.
Who invented absurdism?
Absurdism as a named movement was formalized by Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus (1942). But the absurdist impulse appears much earlier — in Kafka, Carroll, Lear, and others.
Related
Absurdist Literature Guide · Absurdist Literature Reading List · History of Comedy