Pune

UNIVERSITY OF BAGHDAD

THE ABSENCE OF GENDER
IN
ALL MALE PLAYS
(WITH REFERENCE TO BECKETT’S AND PINTER’S SELECTED WORKS)

A THESIS
SUBMITTED TO THE COUNCIL OF THE
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION FOR WOMEN
THE UNIVERSITY OF BAGHDAD
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS
IN
ENGLISH LITERATURE

BY
IKHLAS MUHAMMED NATI

SUPERVISOR
ASST. PROF. MAYADA KASSIM Al-Gailani

FEBRUARY 2006

بِسِمِ اَلله الرَحمنَ الَرَحَيم

وَأَن لَّيْسَ لِلإِنَسنِ إِلآَّ مَا سَعَى*
وَأَنَّ سَعْيَهُ سَوْفَ يُرَى*

صَدَقَ اَللهُ العَظيم (سورة النجم 39-40)

I certify that this thesis was prepared under my supervision at the University of Baghdad as a partial requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in English Literature.

Signature: Advisor: Date:

In view of the available recommendations, I forward this thesis for debate by the Examining Committee.

Signature: Name: Chairman of the English Department Committee on Graduate Studies in English Literature Date:

We certify that we have read this thesis and as Examining Committee examined the student in its context and that in our opinion it is adequate as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts in English Literature.

Signature: Signature:
Name: Name: Member Member

Signature: Signature:
Name: Name: Member Chairman Date:

Approved for the Council of the College of Education for Women.

Signature: Name: Dean of the College of Education for Women Date:

To my mother’s soul, may God bless her.
And to my father, for all his love and support.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii
ABSTRACT ix
CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION: THE THEATRE OF
THE ABSURD: HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND, MEANING
AND CHARACTERISTICS 1 NOTES 20
CHAPTER TWO - THE ABSENCE OF GENDER IN
BECKETT’S ALL

Bibliography: Alvarez, A. Beckett. Fontana: Collins, 1973. Asmus, Walter D. “Rehearsal Notes for the German Premiere of Beckett’s That Time and Footfalls.” Journal of Beckett Studies. Vol. 2. Summer, 1977. Baker, William and Tabachnick, Stephen Ely. Harold Pinter. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1973. Barzun, Jacques. “From Darwin, Marx, Wagner: Critique of Heritage.” In Great Issues in Western Civilization, 4th edited by Brian Tieney, Donald Kagan and L. Pearce Williams. New York: McGraw Hill, Inc., 1992. Bateso, F. W., I. Donaldson, W. J. Harvey and C. B. Ricks ed. Essays in Criticism: A Quarterly Journal of Literary Criticism. Oxford: The Holy Well Press, Ltd., April, 1966. Beckett, Samuel. That Time. London: Faber and Faber, 1976. . Krapp’s Last Tape and Embers. London: Faber and Faber, 1979. . Three Occasional Pieces. London: Faber and Faber, 1982. . Waiting for Godot. London: Faber and Faber, 1982. . Endgame. London: Faber and Faber, 1985. Boulton, James T Bradbury, Malcolm and Christopher Bigsby ed. Harold Pinter. London: Methuen Co. Ltd., 1983. Brater, Enoch. Why Beckett. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1989. Burkman, Katherine. The Dramatic World of Harold Pinter: Its Basis in Ritual. Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1971. Camus, Albert. “The Myth of Sisyphus.” Translated by Justin O’Brien. Great Britain: Penguin Books, 1955. Chamber, Ross. “Beckett’s Brinkmanship.” In Samuel Beckett: A Collection of Critical Essays. Edited by Martin Esslin. Englewood Cliffs. N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1965. Coe, Richard N. Beckett. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1964. Cohn, Ruby. “Philosophical Fragments in the Work of Samuel Beckett.” In Samuel Beckett: A Collection of Critical Essays. Edited by Martin Esslin. London: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1965. . “The World of Harold Pinter.” In Pinter: A Collection of Critical Essays. Edited by Arthur Ganz. Englewood Cliffs. N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1972. . “Outward Bound Soliloquies.” Journal of Modern Literature, Vol. VI, February, 1977. Cohn, Ruby and Bernard Dukore, ed. Twentieth Century Drama: England, Ireland, The United States. New York: Random House, 1966. Conner, Steven. Samuel Beckett: Repetition Theory and Text. New York: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1988. Corrigan, Robert W. The World of the Theatre. London: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1979. Dukore, Bernard F Ellman, Richard. Four Dubliners: Wilde, Yeats, Joyce and Beckett. London: Hamish Hamilton Ltd., 1987. Esslin, Martin. “Godot and His Children.” In Samuel Beckett: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs. N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1965. . The Theatre of the Absurd. London: Eyre and Spottiswood, 1966. . “Introduction.” In Absurd Drama: Amedée and Other Plays. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1987. . Pinter: The Playwright. 4th ed. London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1982. Fleming, William. Art and Ideas. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc., 1961. Fletcher, B. J.; Fletcher, B. Smith; W. Bachem. A Student’s Guide to the Plays of Samuel Beckett. London: Faber and Faber, 1978. Ford, Boris, ed. The Modern Age. Vol. 7. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1961. . The Present. Vol. 8. England: Penguin Books, 1983. Ganz, Arthur. “Introduction.” In Pinter: A Collection of Critical Essays. Edited by Arthur Ganz. Englewood Cliffs. N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1972. Gascoigne, Bamber. Twentieth-Century Drama. London: Hutchinson University Library, 1962. Gassner, John and B. F. Dukore. A Treasury of the Theatre: From Henrik Ibsen to Robert Lowell. Vol. II. New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1935. Goetz, Philip W. ed. “Existentialism.” In The New Encyclopedia Britannica. Chicago University Press, 1986. Goodman, Randolph. Drama on Stage. 2nd ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978. Gordon, Lois G. Strategems to Uncover Nakedness: The Dramas of Harold Pinter. Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1969. Hall, Ann C. A Kind of Alaska: Women in the Plays of O’Neill, Pinter and Shepard. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1993. Hinchliffe, Arnold P. The Absurd: The Critical Idiom. London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1969. Hoffman, Frederick. Samuel Beckett: The Man and His Works. London: Forum House Company, 1969. Holman, C. Hugh. A Handbook to Literature. Fourth edition. Indianapolis: The Bolls-Mervill Co. Inc., 1985. Ionesco, Eugene, “Amedée.” Translated by Donald Watson. In Absurd Drama. London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1973. Kerr, Walter. Harold Pinter. New York. Columbia University Press, 1967. Kershaw, John. The Present Stage: New Direction in the Theatre Today. London: Fontana Books, 1966. Lahar, John. “Pinter and Chekhov: The Band of Naturalism.” In Pinter: A Collection of Critical Essays. Edited by Arthur Ganz. Englewood Cliffs. N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1972. Leech, Clifford. “Two Romantics: Arnold Wesker and Harold Pinter.” In Contemporary Theatre. Edited by H. A. Smith. London: Edward Arnold Ltd., 1968. Lyons, Charles R. Samuel Beckett. London: Macmillan, 1983. Marrin, David. “Scenes Tackle Realism, Absurdity.” (February 2004, URI:http://www.sccs.swarth-more-edul.) Retrieved Dec. 2003. Moore, Harry T. Twentieth-Century French Literature. London: Heinemann Educational Book Ltd., 1966. Morriso, Kristin. “The Rip Word in a Piece of Monologue.” Vol. XXV, 1982. Pesta, John. “Pinter’s Usurpers.” In Pinter: A Collection of Critical Essays. Edited by Arthur Ganz. Englewood Cliffs. N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1972. Pinter, Harold. The Dumb Waiter. London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1960. . No Man’s Land. London: Eyre Methuen, 1975. . “Introduction: Writing for the Theatre.” In Plays: One. London: Eyre Methuen, 1976. . The Caretaker. London: Eyre Methuen, 1977. . “The Dwarfs.” In Plays: One. London: Eyre Methuen, 1980. Quigley, Austin E. The Pinter Problem. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1975. Reid, Alec. All I can Manage, More Than I Could: An Approach to the Plays of Samuel Beckett. New York: Grove Press Inc., 1968. Robbe, Alain. “Samuel Beckett, or Presence.” In The Theatre in Martin Esslin: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1965. Rustam, Aneed Thanwan. “Man’s Suffering in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Endgame.” In Al-Mustansiriya Literary Review. Baghdad: Al-Wataniya Press, 1985. Selden, Raman. Practising Theory and Reading Literature: An Introduction. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1985. Shorroks, Lucy. “Beckett Time, 2000: Seeing the world differently with Samuel Beckett.” July 2000 (http://www.beckett-time.demon.coukkl.) Retrieved May 2004. Styan, J. L. The Dark Comedy: The Development of Modern Comic Tragedy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979. . Modern Drama in Theory and Practice: Symbolism, Surrealism and the Absurd. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981. Suvin, Darko. “Beckett’s Purgatory of the Individual.” Tulane Drama Review. Vol. II, Part 4, Summer, 1967. Taylor, John Russell. “Introduction.” In Modern British Dramatists: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed., John Russell Brown. Englewood Cliffs. N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. . Anger and after: A Guide to the New British Drama. London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1969. . Harold Pinter. Essex: Longmans Green and Co. Ltd., 1969. . Harold Pinter. Great Britain: Longman Group Ltd., 1969. Vanlennep, D. J. “The Hotel Room.” In Phenomenological Psychology, ed. Joseph J. Kochelmans. Dordrecht: Martinus Nighoff Publishers, 1987. Williams, Raymond. Modern Tragedy. London: T. and A. Constable Ltd., 1966. . Drama from Ibsen to Brecht. London: The Hogarth Press, 1968. Worth, Katharine, ed. Beckett the Shape Changer. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1975. Yasiri, al- Hussain. Educational Psychology. Translated by Dr. Muayad Jajo. College of Education for Women, 1999.