polycarp kusch, ed. Absuridst Monthly Review. Issue 5. August 2006.

As the monthly publication of a thriving online community, The Absurdist Monthly Review presents a diverse set of news updates, articles, reviews, and columns relevant to absurdist readers and writers. Addressing such subjects as the reception of a production of Ionesco’s The Chairs, Edward Lear’s poetry, intertexuality, microfiction, and absurdist rhetorical strategies, this issue of the journal provides a vivid snapshot of the debates and dialogues taking place between the readers, writers, and scholars of the absurdist community.

The academic articles within The Absurdist Monthly Review are shrewd and well-written, often analyzing the characteristics of absurdist literature while expanding its boundaries. Sebastian Donat’s article “Absurdist Literature: Exploring Limits,” for example, critiques current approaches to the study of absurdist literature and the results that they produce. Particularly skeptical of the study of absurdist writing as the result of the avant-garde theatre of the 1950s and therefore confined to a specific place and time, Donat advocates a more inclusive analysis of absurdist rhetorical strategies in literature. He argues that the perspective taken by the majority of scholars limits the study of this type of writing by attempting to categorize it as a genre. Donat eloquently and convincingly supports his argument for a broader study of this brand of writing.

Other articles in Issue 5 of AMR adhere to a philosophy similar to Donat’s, continually widening the horizons of absurdist scholarship. polycarp kusch’s article “Absurdity and Nonsense: Was Nonsense Master Edward Lear Really Just an Absurdist with a Neologism Fetish?” raises several interesting questions about Lear’s place in the literary canon. Illustrating the ways that authors who are not usually thought of as absurdist use such writing techniques, kusch makes a convincing argument that this well-known nonsense master was aware of these techniques and applied them in novel ways. kusch ultimately shows how absurdist writing is not so much a genre as an approach to constructing narrative.

Also included in Issue 5 are reviews of recent short fiction, writers’ forums, discussion boards, and a library of absurdist literature found on the website. If you're reading this review, chances are you'll enjoy this issue of AMR.

— Kristina Marie Darling