absurdist literature

In Eugene Ionesco's 1959 play "Rhinoceros," a staple of the post-war absurdist repertoire, the cast of characters discuss the sudden news that one or more rhinoceros have been seen running through their small French town.

In the play, the local villagers parse trivial, speculative and tangential points—the rhinoceros, seen on two occasions, might have been two different animals (a two horned or one horned variety—Asiatic or African—although no one is quite sure which is which), or it might not have been seen at all. It may have escaped from a zoo or a circus, but, we are told that this town has no zoo and banned circuses ages ago. One character deems it to be a creation of the press as a means to sell papers—a "flower of some journalist's imagination." When witnesses report that a rhinoceros trampled a cat, the same skeptic proposes that this might be a hyperbolic report of a mouse running over a flea. All this casual banter, some of it set in a town market, weaves in and out of small talk—inquiries about the price of wine and cheese, and fragments of local gossip.