Ansgar Allen

Ansgar Allen is a writer and novelist whose work strays between fiction, philosophy, and critical theory. He is editor-in-chief at Erratum Press which seeks to 'infiltrate literature with "calculated acts of cultural barbarism"'.^[1] In addition to his work as a novelist, Allen is known for his academic contributions to the field of educational philosophy and theory,^[2][3] as well as the study of ancient and modern Cynicism.^[4][5][6][7]

Ansgar Allen at Middleton Moor, Derbyshire, UK. Photo by JMF CASEY

His works have been widely translated. The novel Wretch (2020) was republished in Spanish translation by the Bogotá-based press, Ediciones Vestigio as Ruin (2023, tr. Ramiro Sanchiz). His volume Cynicism (2020), part of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series,^[4] was republished in Japanese translation by Newton Press (2021, tr. Masamichi Ueno), in Chinese translation by The Commercial Press (2023 tr. Ni Jianqing),^[8] and in Persian translation by Maziar Publications (2023 tr. Toraj Hori).^[9]

Style and themes

Allen's literary approach is characterised by fragmented narratives, metafictional techniques, "targeted irreverence",^[10] and a "radically intertextual" narrative style.^[11]

Allen has engaged a number of key figures in literature and philosophy in his writings, including Thomas Bernhard,^[12][13] Antonin Artaud,^[14][15] Georges Bataille,^[16][17][18] and Friedrich Nietzsche.^[19][20]

In a 2025 interview Allen stated that when he incorporates such authors in his fictions, it is with the aim of creating a space where their "more disturbing ideas are allowed to persist and interanimate".^[21] This is to "allow the ideas themselves...to run amok to some extent...and keep them, as far as is possible, in an unresolved state".^[22]

Reception

Allen's work has been compared to that of Samuel Beckett,^[23] Italo Calvino,^[24] and Jorge Luis Borges.^[25] His more experimental writing has been described by Simon Palfrey as "like listening to the insomnia of Hamlet",^[26] and by Eugen Bacon as "exquisitely weird".^[27]

Allen's novels have been considered "reminiscent of the work of Lars Iyer, although while Iyer's novels take the form of quasi-Platonic dialogues in which the characters talk about philosophical ideas, Allen's seem more like parables or fables".^[28]

Bibliography

• Midden Hill (2025)
• Jonathan Martin (2025)
• The Faces of Pluto (2024)
• Black Vellum (2023)
• The Wake and the Manuscript (2022)
• Plague Theatre (2022)
• Burton's Anatomy (2022)
• The Reading Room (2021)
• The Reaches (2021)
• The Sick List (2021)
• Wretch (2020)
• Cynicism (2020)
• The Cynical Educator (2017)
• Education and Philosophy: An Introduction (2017) with Roy Goddard
• Benign Violence: Education in and beyond the Age of Reason (2014)

See also

• Experimental literature
• Metafiction
• Intertextuality
• Cynicism (philosophy)
• Cynicism (contemporary)