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It is commonly felt among literary and theatre-going people today that the Theatre of the Absurd is making a comment on the meaninglessness and formlessness of contemporary life. The way the Theatre makes its comment is new and exciting: it simply places before our eyes meaninglessness and formlessness. And the Absurd is left at that. Directors can concentrate on the bizarre, making the plays, even The Caretaker, into three-hour runs of pointless juxtapositions that leave sophisticated audiences complacent. Too often the plays of Beckett, Pinter and Ionesco are treated as slices of life, without beginning or end. This paper was undertaken in an effort to discover whether there was not more to the Absurd play than imitation of life's daily chaos. Strong ritualistic elements had been noticed during a first random reading of some Absurd plays. A later discovery of Genet and his open experimentation with rituals, led me to suspect that the ritual so obvious in his plays also played a part, though a more furtive one, in the works of Pinter and Beckett. The following close examination of texture and structure has convinced me that the formal element, which distinguishes ritual, makes up the fabric of the Absurd play; and that this studied use of ritual makes the plays of the Absurd the most precise dramatic statements to have been seen on western stages since medieval days. Rather than exemplifying formlessness, the Absurd play often stands witness to the stark purity of formality. . / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

As delineated in the Introduction, the central direction of this thesis is that of determining the nature and purpose of Harold Pinter's-drama, of tracing his relationship to contemporary drama and dramatists in general, and the theatre of the Absurd in particular. Contrary to the popular belief that the concept of the Absurd suddenly burst upon the literary scene within the last decade, the emphasis of the first chapter lies on the evolutionary process of its development. The idea of the Absurd, or better, an intuition of the concept of the Absurd can be discovered in the philosophic, literary, and theatrical expression of the western world since the end of the last century. These manifestations of the Absurd did not reach the mind of the multitude until it began to express itself through the medium of the theatre. Even then, however, it remained somewhat esoteric in its appeal and reception. Harold Pinter enters the scene of the Absurd, not as an innovator but as a playwright with an exceptional sense of theatre. He does not attempt to redefine its basic ideas, the concept itself is already somewhat diffuse in meaning; his, is an expression of an intense and concentrated image of the absurd. He forged a new weapon with which to impress the Absurd on the consciousness of the popular mind. Pinter's variation of the Absurd thus differs from the continental expression of Beckett and Ionesco in emphasis and manner of expression, not in idea. Its area of concentration is not on the human condition, but on the abject apparition of the individual imprisoned in existence and society. Unlike Beckett's his queries are not of a metaphysical nature. Pinter probes into the masked reality of everyday life. What he exposes is the presence of a menace which threatens, intimidates and destroys the individual, yet remains unidentified. Toward the expression of this conception of man's predicament, Pinter has conceived of a dramatic metaphor which is best described as 'latent grotesque' in effect. Thus the grotesque dominates the idea of his drama and is the very essence of his threatrical form. The theatre which can now be identified with Pinter's name is a drama of anxiety which progresses from the comic grotesque to the terrifying grotesque. Laughter which resolves itself in fear is the new instrument with which an awareness of the Absurd is impressed upon the audience. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation examines the work of Felipe Alfau, a Spanish-American writer who wrote two novels and a collection of children’s stories in the first half of the twentieth century which were the focus of a short-lived critical enthusiasm in the early 1990s. It recognizes the important contribution made by those early critics, but also tries to make a case for a reading of Alfau at variance with the kinds of readings his work has previously received. Specifically, it points at structural and thematic complexities in Alfau’s narratives that have been attributed to his experimentation with self-reflexivity and metafiction, experimentation which many have claimed anticipates the work of writers of the second half of the century. My dissertation shows how other unrelated concerns may have led him to boldly reconsider the parameters of narrative form. I contend that for Alfau confabulation, collaboration, and art are generators of narratives that present the self as an insoluble mystery. What I intend to demonstrate is that Alfau views these sources as problematic repositories that fail to capture and preserve human experience, yet simultaneously believes that they are the only means at our disposal for doing so. His narratives communicate the frustrations such a paradox entails, but also celebrate human faith in those means in spite of such frustrations.

This study has attempted to show that, in her récit Le Soleil et la terre (Paris: Société Nouvelle des Editions J.-J. Pauvert, 1977), the contemporary French woman writer Chantal Chawaf has, through her use of language, created female-defined symbolic imagery. The sources of such imagery draw upon the depths of female experience expressed in a female collective unconscious silenced within both the female mind itself and the interpretive cultural body. At the very core of such imagery - and that upon which focuses the author is the primary presence of the sexual body as the very key defining mode of existence and weltanschauung. The introduction briefly discusses Chantal Chawaf's sensuous and sensual use of language to convey the bodily source of her imagery and words. The focus, however, remains - throughout the study - on how the author is bringing to the foreground the bodily presence and experiences of woman left essentially unacknowledged, in woman's own terms, in the general social fabric. The first chapter examines imagery arising in the female imagination when the self confronts the self as female revealing to woman the sisterhood of all females through ties of body and a primordial affinity with Mother Earth as giver and sustainer of life. The second chapter discusses the cathartic process of freeing woman from the shackles of self-denial arising from an implicit and blind acceptance of male-dominated visions and experiences. The search for female identity in a male-dominated world necessitates fleeing from established and universally accepted symbolic forms by distorting them through imaginative powers. The third chapter examines the gradual attempt to ground woman's identity through a (re)conquest of the female self. The process of (re)birth entails the recognition and acceptance of the self's primary motivating force: the female body and how it relates to its biological truth of giving life. Thus, bodily-defined, life ultimately derives meaning through the human interconnection of man, woman and child as expressed in the time-worn word - Love - to which Chantal Chawaf gives a new, life-pulsating and all-encompassing cosmic meaning. An integral, if not perhaps paramount, part of considerations of content in this study has also been that of form. The very form of this study attempts to duplicate, as a mimetic echo, Chantal Chawaf's image of the woman writer as a lacemaker (la dentelliére) searching to find and make meaning apparent through the transparent or barely visible medium of words. An attempt was made to show (by means of layout, blanks, spacing, oblique quotations...) how explanatory analysis need not follow the path of logical discursive thought, but can also arise from the interplay or associative capacity of abstract intelligence, memory and imagination; i.e., to arrive at intellectual meaning through the concept known in the visual arts as «negative space». / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

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The author set out to investigate operatic works that were written in South Africa between 1994 and 2004. Original works that included African elements were of interest as was their classification as operas, musical theatre or music drama. Their artistic merit and the process followed in writing successful works in this genre were investigated. Not only was the collaboration between composer and librettist scrutinised, but also the initial stage during which the conception for these theatrical works took shape. Due to the empirical nature of the research, data was collected mostly via interviews held with composers, librettists, directors and conductors of original works written and performed in the said period. The data is presented in six chapters, each one providing a full description of casting details, synopses and brief analyses of the works. In the Preface the premise upon which the research rests is discussed, while the Introduction serves to highlight various issues concerning modem opera and fusion works that have played an important role in providing the groundwork for contemporary ethnic opera in this country. Original works are discussed in each chapter, and a critical evaluation is presented in an Appendix. The author concludes that much effort was expended by pioneers in the fields of music, theatre and dance to create new works and organise performances. What emerged, furthermore, was that many of the works analysed could not be categorised as 'opera' but rather as 'musical theatre' or 'music drama'. It would also seem that uninitiated audiences first need to be made conscious of the aesthetic value of the genre before they may be able to appreciate it. Operatic production companies have always been at the forefront when it comes to decision - making regarding which and whose work shall be performed. Funding is crucial to the success of any production and plays an equally important role in eventually determining a positive outcome. This aspect has, therefore, also been included as part of the research project.

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