Alfred Jarry

One of the most important figures of the Parisian avant-garde, Alfred Jarry, was born in northern France, in 1873. Jarry is the author of Surrealist works, The Ubu Plays (1896), which include Ubu the King, Ubu Cuckolded, and Ubu Bound. He was also extremely influential to the Theatre of the Absurd school, which included such writers as Jean Genet, Samuel Beckett, and Eugène Ionesco. Moving to Paris at the age of seventeen, Jarry’s writing was noticed and he became involved in a circle of intellectuals that included Guillaume Apollinaire, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Max Jacob. After a brief stint in the army, Jarry returned to Paris where he would write his first novel, entitled Days and Nights, about his experiences in the military. During this time he was also a contributor to the prestigious Symbolist magazine L’Ymagier. In 1896 Jarry’s play, Ubu the King, was first produced, which was extremely controversial at the time and immediately garnered attention to the young writer. Other works from Jarry’s minimal, albeit important, repertoire include the novels The Supermale and Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, pataphysician, and the play Caesar Antichrist. Jarry died at the age of thirty-four of tuberculosis in 1907.