Eugène Ionesco : théâtre de l’absurde ou théâtre de l’interculturalité ?

Abstract

Torn between two languages and two cultures, Ionesco continued his search for a meaning of identity,
and became a writer of the absurd. As the concern for the human condition is at the heart of Ionesco’s literary
project, so his works are based in the theme of the absurd. The modern man concerns him, and since the latter is
universal, so addressing him is actually addressing the entire humanity, Ionesco himself included: “the life,
myself, the character I put in the scene, and the event that suddenly unveils, for me theatre too is all these”.
Through this sentence, Ionesco reveals the essence of his theatrical writing and thought that are dedicated to all
humanity. This article studies the approach of the absurd-intercultural that Ionesco used in his works. In fact, we
are not going to put his works within the frame of a linguistic study among other works belonging to different
cultures, but rather in the discourse analysis of the self and the ‘Other’, through the use of the markings of
culture and identity. In the first part, we try to show the importance of the cultural identity and the consciousness of the self. Then we will analyze his work according Ionesco’s conceptualization of the encounter with the ‘Other’. Finally, the role of translation and language in intercultural communication is examined; that is to say, their potential impact on the encounter of the readers and the audience with individuals from different times and spaces.