absurdist fiction

Absurdist fiction is literature that emphasizes the meaninglessness or irrationality of human existence.

Characters face situations where logic fails and conventional purpose dissolves: Kafka's protagonists wake up as insects or face incomprehensible bureaucracies.

The genre shares philosophical roots with existentialism but leans toward dark comedy and the bizarre rather than earnest searching.

Beckett, Ionesco, and Vonnegut are associated with the form.