Becoming the Beast: Theatrical Chaos and the Collapse of Meaning in Ionesco’s Rhinoceros
Theatre and Drama Network- Living on the Edge: Chaos in Theatre, Film and Performance, İstanbul, Türkiye, 5 - 07 Aralık 2025, ss.64, (Özet Bildiri)
- Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Özet Bildiri
- Basıldığı Şehir: İstanbul
- Basıldığı Ülke: Türkiye
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.64
- İstanbul Kent Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Eugène Ionesco’s Rhinoceros (1959) stands as one of the most striking theatrical explorations of chaos in the modern era, dramatizing existential anxiety, ideological conformity, and the disintegration of language. Set in a small provincial town where inhabitants inexplicably transform into rhinoceroses, the play stages a surreal yet deeply political allegory. The “rhinocerization” of the townspeople functions as a metaphor for the rise of totalitarian ideologies and mass conformity in twentieth-century Europe, reflecting Ionesco’s personal experiences with the spread of fascism in pre-war Romania. Through the framework of the Theatre of the Absurd, Rhinoceros exemplifies the absurdist tension between humanity’s search for meaning and the irrationality of existence. Bérenger, the unlikely and flawed protagonist, embodies the existential hero who clings to individuality in the face of absurdity, chaos, and annihilation. His resistance, though fragile and uncertain, becomes a final stand against a dehumanizing collective. At the same time, the play can be illuminated through a poststructuralist perspective, which highlights the breakdown of logic, the collapse of discourse, and the instability of meaning. As the language of the townspeople becomes fragmented, circular, and incoherent, rational communication gives way to ideological slogans, exposing how power reshapes truth and erases individuality. By combining these two critical frameworks, the study argues that chaos in Rhinoceros is not confined to theme but is also embedded in the play’s dramatic form: surreal transformations, illogical dialogues, and a narrative that destabilizes conventional theatrical expectations. The result is a theatrical world where identity, reason, and reality collapse, leaving only the precarious persistence of resistance. Rhinoceros thus demonstrates how theatre, in staging chaos, becomes a vital medium for interrogating both historical trauma and the perennial fragility of human freedom.