1. Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and Culture Tekstanalyse og – historie (Spring 2009) Session Three: Harold Pinter, The Dumb Waiter

2. Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and Culture Agenda  Harold Pinter, The Dumb Waiter  The Absurd  20th century British fiction

3. Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and Culture The Dumb Waiter  Staging  Characters and characterization  Plot, action, and dialogue

4. Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and Culture Staging  Realism or symbolism?

5. Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and Culture Characters and characterization  How does Pinter characterise the men in the play? How does he control our response to them?  With whom do we sympathise in the play? How are we made to sympathise with them?  Motivation: What does the play tell us about why the characters act and speak in the way they do? How?  What does the play tell us about the relations between the characters, for instance, the relation of power? How?

6. Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and Culture Plot, action, and dialogue  What is signified by the actions and speech (also the writing) of the characters?  Outline significant events, reversals, shifts in the action.

7. Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and Culture Theme  What is the play about?  Does the play have a message or point?

8. Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and Culture The Absurd  The human condition is absurd (no truth, value, and meaning)  Is Pinter’s play an example of the theatre of the absurd?

9. Jens Kirk, Dept. of Languages and Culture 20th century British fiction  Modernism  Anti-modernism (realism)  Postmodernism  Postcolonialism