Samuel Beckett's influence on the plays of Harold Pinter in the light of postmodern concepts

The objective of this thesis is to emphasize the influence of Samuel Beckett, who has been admitted as one of the pioneering figures of twentieth century art in every field and over his contemporary playwright, Harold Pinter, by virtue of a comparative analysis of their dramatic works. Within the framework of this study, Samuel Beckett has been considered as a breaking point in the course of the transition from modernism to postmodernism. Whilst some theatre and literature researchers have regarded Beckett as the final representative of modernism, they underlined his main contribution to postmodernism. Within this context, the numbers of those researchers who regard Beckett as a postmodernist writer have not been at a negligible rate. The proceedings of this thesis have been made over the causes of his being a key figure at this transitional phase by determining those modernist and postmodernist elements in his plays. As for the plays of Harold Pinter, whose contents included the feeling of admiration for Beckett, some of the critics have placed a substantial emphasis on the necessity of assessing Harold Pinter's drama as postmodern, whereas for some other critics his drama is regarded as modern. Therefore, this study proceeds over common elements in the plays of both playwrights; as well as inquiring the influence of Samuel Beckett on Harold Pinter's plays through some of the prominent concepts of postmodern theatre, which are narrative, memory, presence / non-presence, offstage, and playfulness, respectively.