This essay examines how the meaning of an absurd play may be affected by how the reader understands the text. To address this problem I have turned to Wolfgang Isers theory of reception. Primarily I have taken on that the creation of meaning comes about when the reader fills in blanks in the text. I have also used Martin Esslins work on the theater of the absurd. I have mainly studied his research on Harold Pinter. Based on these two theories I have suggested a interpretation model that focuses on the interaction between reader and text. The interpretation model contains how the reader analyses blanks through observing the wandering view alternatively understanding the implied reader. The interpretation model also discusses how the reader can fill in blanks by using the relationship between character and environment, the final junction, turning points and uncertainties. I tested this interpretation model on Harold Pinters play A kind of Alaska. In my ideation of the play I realized it was about the loneliness of ageing and changing. I used these results to evaluate the usefulness of the interpretation model. / Denna uppsats undersöker hur läsarens uppfattning av en absurdistisk pjäs påverkar dess betydelse. För att angripa det här problemet har jag dels vänt mig till Wolfgang Isers receptions teori. Jag har främst tagit fasta på hur meningskapande sker när läsaren fyller i luckor i texten. Jag har även vänt mig till Martin Esslins forskning om den absurdistiska teatern. Där har jag främst studerat hans undersökning av Harold Pinters dramatik. Utifrån dess två teoretiska ingångar la jag fram ett förslag till en tolkningsmodell som utgår från läsarens interaktion med texten. Tolkningsmodellen innehåller bland annat hur man kan analysera luckor utifrån läsarens rörliga perspektiv alternativt utifrån en underförstådd läsare. Tolkningsmodellen tar också upp hur läsaren kan fylla i luckor genom att använda sig av karaktärens relation till rummet, knutpunkter, vändpunkter och osäkerheter. Jag har testat tolkningsmodellen på Harold Pinters pjäs A kind of Alaska. I min ideation av pjäsen kom jag fram till att den handlade om ensamheten i åldrande och förändring. Jag använde resultatet av analysen för att utvärdera tolkningsmodellens användbarhet.

This essay examines the grotesque in Samuel Becketts wellknown play Waiting for Godot. The play is primarily seen as an icon of absurdism, and it is such not appropriate to examine the play as if it belongs to the litterary genre of grotesque. The primary purpose of absurdism is to reveal the pointless- and emptiness of existence. In order to illustrate these points absurdism will often make use of the common characteristics of the grotesque. With this in mind I present, within this essay, an eximination of whether Samuel Becket makes use of these characteristics to assist his portayal of emptiness in Waiting for Godot. A prior understanding of absurdism is required and i have as such primarly used Martin Esslins famous studies. The studies of the grotesque are mainly represented by two theorists. Michail Bachtin's theory is based around the medieval carnival culture, whose archetype was the duality of the body expressed through the pregnant death. Bachtin seeks to highlight the grotesques close connection with laughter as a relief and covers it's use during the middle ages and the renneissance. Wolfgang Kayser studies the term as it is used during the romanticism and modernism. Kayser describes the grotesque as "cold" and alienating. He describes the word as an ”estranged world”. The analysis relies mostly on Bachtin's theories and examines the play from the viewpoint of the picture of the grotesque body, sense of time, the logic of the upside down world and the connection to the carnivals culture of laughter but also examines if Kayser's theories of the ”estranged world” are compatible. Finally, I reach the conclusion that even though Bachtins theory treats the grotesque in a time long before Beckett's, a reading of Waiting for Godot from the perspective of the carnival culture is interesting.  The laughter and the open, grotesque body, plays as expected a large role in the handling of the emptiness, the cyclic sense of time is found in the play and never ceases to repeat, the upside down world's logic and it's abolition of hierarchies is significant and the world in the play seems alien to itself.

This work is an effort to investigate the relationship between Albert Camus' philosophic concepts of the absurd presented in "The Myth of Sisyphus" and the Absurdist Theatre as defined by Martin Esslin. Included in this thesis is a discussion of each of the above concepts. Focus is placed upon the characteristics of the Absurdist Theatre which constitute the basis for the label "Absurdity." The conclusion indicates that while the playwright's personal experiences and philosophies correspond to Camus', their plays fail to communicate or express that concept of absurdity satisfactorily. The major emphasis is on the lack of concrete reality used to communicate a concept based upon concrete reality.