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Metaphorical worlds in Samuel Beckett's "Endgame" and Harold Pinter's "Ashes to Ashes"

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Date Issued:
2000
Summary:
Harold Pinter's debt to Samuel Beckett is not a matter of direct copying or replication, but a natural progression of the postmodern dramatic form. Both Pinter and Beckett examine human violence, companionship, game playing, religion, and philosophy, culminating in a world-as-stage metaphor where characters are subtly aware of being both spectators and players. Pinter's and Beckett's mimetic representations, whether successful or not, capture the essence of existence as a continuous creative process: characters examine dreamlike memories of experiences for meaning and narrate the past in their present existence in order to bring purpose to their future. The creative process of defining the past influences the characters' present decisions: the phenomenology of being in time is the only certainty. Pinter and Beckett move beyond tragicomedy and absurdity to an ontological metaphor: play creates fiction as an epistemological truth.
Title: Metaphorical worlds in Samuel Beckett's "Endgame" and Harold Pinter's "Ashes to Ashes".
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Name(s): Fiedler, Robin M.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Pearce, Howard D., Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 2000
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
Extent: 111 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Harold Pinter's debt to Samuel Beckett is not a matter of direct copying or replication, but a natural progression of the postmodern dramatic form. Both Pinter and Beckett examine human violence, companionship, game playing, religion, and philosophy, culminating in a world-as-stage metaphor where characters are subtly aware of being both spectators and players. Pinter's and Beckett's mimetic representations, whether successful or not, capture the essence of existence as a continuous creative process: characters examine dreamlike memories of experiences for meaning and narrate the past in their present existence in order to bring purpose to their future. The creative process of defining the past influences the characters' present decisions: the phenomenology of being in time is the only certainty. Pinter and Beckett move beyond tragicomedy and absurdity to an ontological metaphor: play creates fiction as an epistemological truth.
Identifier: 9780599813687 (isbn), 12677 (digitool), FADT12677 (IID), fau:9559 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2000.
Subject(s): Beckett, Samuel,--1906-1989.--Endgame.
Pinter, Harold,--1930-2008.--Ashes to ashes.
Drama--Technique.
Realism in literature.
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12677
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.