Abstract
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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. |
Keywords
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Beckett, Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, Waiting for Godot |
Article
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Article # 8
Volume # 2
Issue # 4
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DOI info
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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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