Aux racines du théâtre et du cinéma de l'absurde: Witkiewicz, Buñuel et la vision philosophique de Rensi

Abstract

Ever since Martin Esslin formulated the concept of a Theatre of the Absurd, criticism has endorsed the notion almost exclusively in a theatrical sense. The need to open up Esslin’s concept to the field of cinema now seems imperative. This view finds its ultimate justification at the juncture between the work of Luis Buñuel and of S.I. Witkiewicz, but also between the work of those two creators and philosopher Giuseppe Rensi. My article seeks to demonstrate that, as early as the 1930s, an aesthetics of the Absurd already existed — on the stage as well as on the screen — combining cheery non-sensical content with the ambiguity of abstract form. A study of the landmark play Kurka Wodna (The Water Hen, written in 1921), and of the film L’Âge d’or (1930), in parallel with the essay La Filosofia dell’assurdo (The Philosophy of the Absurd, first published as Interiora Rerum in 1924), supports this argument, which also aims to bring out some „invariants” from the aesthetics of the Absurd.