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Metaphorical worlds in Samuel Beckett's "Endgame" and Harold Pinter's "Ashes to Ashes"
Title
Metaphorical worlds in Samuel Beckett's "Endgame" and Harold Pinter's "Ashes to Ashes".
Creator
Fiedler, Robin M., Florida Atlantic University, Pearce, Howard D.
Abstract/Description
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...
Show moreHarold 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.
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Date Issued
2000
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12677
Subject Headings
Beckett, Samuel,--1906-1989.--Endgame., Pinter, Harold,--1930-2008.--Ashes to ashes., Drama--Technique., Realism in literature.
Format
Document (PDF)
Magic words
Title
Magic words: illuminating the role of language in Lord Dunsany's fictional prose.
Creator
Cervone, Skye T., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description
It is a great deficit to Fantasy scholarship that Lord Dunsany has remained largely ignored. Despite the lack of critical attention Lord Dunsany's work has received at the hands of critics, his fiction has been immensely important to other Fantasy authors. Dunsany's prose is highly stylized and is an intricate aspect of his world building. While many critics agree that Dunsany's prose style is unique and masterful, no detailed analysis of it exists. This study focuses primarily on Dunsany's...
Show moreIt is a great deficit to Fantasy scholarship that Lord Dunsany has remained largely ignored. Despite the lack of critical attention Lord Dunsany's work has received at the hands of critics, his fiction has been immensely important to other Fantasy authors. Dunsany's prose is highly stylized and is an intricate aspect of his world building. While many critics agree that Dunsany's prose style is unique and masterful, no detailed analysis of it exists. This study focuses primarily on Dunsany's prose style in The King of Elfland's Daughter, widely agreed to be Dunsany's finest novel, and certainly characteristic of his early fiction writing. I then discuss Dunsany's profound influence on J.R.R. Tolkien's critical and fictional work. Both authors embrace Dryden's "fairy way of writing" within their respective works, embracing the old and romantic, as well as nature's creations, as precious treasures in our realm and in the imaginative realm of Faery.
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Date Issued
2011
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3174505
Subject Headings
Aesthetics in literature, Fantasy fiction, English, Criticism and interpretation, Realism in literature
Format
Document (PDF)
compass of human will in realism and fantasy
Title
The compass of human will in realism and fantasy: a reading of Sister Carrie and The King of Elfand's Daugher.
Creator
Stone, Tracy., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description
As realist and naturalist writers at the turn of the twentieth century adopted a scientific spirit of objectivity, they reflected the emphasis many contemporary scientific studies laid on the forces of the natural world in shaping the character, behavior, and ultimate destiny of man. In this literary mood of "pessimistic determinism," fantasy literature began to experience a resurgence, providing a marked contrast to naturalism's portrayal of the impotence of man to effect change in his...
Show moreAs realist and naturalist writers at the turn of the twentieth century adopted a scientific spirit of objectivity, they reflected the emphasis many contemporary scientific studies laid on the forces of the natural world in shaping the character, behavior, and ultimate destiny of man. In this literary mood of "pessimistic determinism," fantasy literature began to experience a resurgence, providing a marked contrast to naturalism's portrayal of the impotence of man to effect change in his circumstances. I examine fantasy's restoration of efficacy to the human will through a study of two representative works of the opposing genres: Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie and Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter. As I demonstrate, the former naturalistic novel emphasizes the impotence of its characters in the face of powerful natural world, while the latter contemporary fantasy novel uniquely showcases man's ability to effect change in his world and his destiny.
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Date Issued
2009
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/221950
Subject Headings
Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Realism in literature, Naturalism in literature, Literature and science, Life change events in literature, Fantasy fiction, English, Criticism and interpretation
Format
Document (PDF)