Alfred Jarry wrote French drama and prose whose grotesque humour and deliberate absurdity helped prepare the ground for later avant-garde theatre. Ubu Roi begins with the coarse Père Ubu seizing power through murder and ruling through greed, cowardice and nonsense, parodying Shakespearean tragedy as well as political authority. Exploits and Opinions of Dr Faustroll, Pataphysician develops 'pataphysics, Jarry's mock science of imaginary solutions and exceptions, through a voyage that ignores ordinary realism. Later Ubu texts continue the character's appetite, cruelty and verbal distortion. Jarry's writing is short, anarchic and intentionally childish in some of its language, but its attack on power and respectable taste is carefully structured. His work fits absurdist precursors, avant-garde drama and surreal comic prose. Read more Less
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