ISSN(Print): 2709-6254 | ISSN(Online) : 2709-6262 | ISSN-L : 2709-6254

Title

Analyzing Beckett's Waiting for Godot as a Political Comedy


Authors

  1. Muhammad Umer Azim
    Assistant Professor, Department of English, Govt. Graduate College Township, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
  2. Dr. Muhammad Saleem
    Professor, Department of English, Govt. Graduate College, Township, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
  3. Nargis Saleem
    Lecturer, Department of English, Riphah International University, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

This study was devised to analyze Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot in the light of Jean-Francois Lyotard’s theory of postmodernism given in his book The Postmodern Condition (1984). This Lyotardian paradigm extends a subversive challenge to all the grand narratives that have been enjoying the status of an enviable complete code of life in the world for a long time. Even a cursory scan over the play under analysis creates a strong feel that Beckett very smartly, comprehensively and successfully questioned the relevance of the totalizing metanarratives to the present times. Being an imaginative writer, he was well aware of the fact that ridicule is a much more useful weapon than satire in the context of political literature. There are so many foundationalist ideologies that he ridicules in his dramatic writing. Christianity as a religion is well exposed; the gravity of philosophy is devalued; the traditional luxury that the humans get from the art of poetry is ruptured and the great ideals of struggle are punctured. He achieves his artistic and ideologically evolved authorial intentions with a ringing success. It is interesting to note that he maintains a healthy balance between art and message.

Page Numers

85-94

Keywords

Beckett, Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, Waiting for Godot

Article

Article # 8
Volume # 2
Issue # 4

DOI info

DOI Number: 10.47205/jdss.2021(2-IV)08
DOI Link: http://doi.org/10.47205/jdss.2021(2-IV)08

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