Anouilh, Jean [key], 1910–87, French dramatist. Anouilh's many popular plays range from tragedy to sophisticated comedy. His first play, L'hermine, was published in 1932. During the Nazi regime he wrote plays about resistance to oppression in terms of subjects from classical mythology; Antigone (1944, tr. 1946) is the most celebrated of these. Several of his later plays have contemporary and historical settings. Anouilh's works frequently contrast the worlds of romantic dreams and harsh reality. He has also written film scripts, one of which, Little Molière (1959) was successfully produced as a play. His later plays include The Waltz of the Toreadors (1952, tr. 1957), Poor Bitos (1958, tr. 1964), The Lark (1953, tr. 1955), Becket (1959, tr. 1960), The Rehearsal (1963), Dear Antoine (1969, tr. 1971), and The Navel (1981).
See studies by J. Harvey (1964), E. O. Marsh (1968), M. Archer (1971), B. A. Lenski (1973), H. G. McIntyre (1981), and C. N. Smith (1985).
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