Abstract

The article takes Milan Kundera's expanded understanding of kitsch and applies it to the interpretation of absurdity in Ionesco's play Rhinoceros. I draw a distinction between political and philosophical kitsch, and cite various examples of each in the play. The conclusion is that Ionesco was neither a nihilist nor an irrationalist, but rather a careful craftsman who used the character of Berenger as a foil against various forms of bourgeois and totalitarian kitsch