Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. New York: Grove Press, 1994. Print.
This is the play by Samuel Beckett that will be one of my two main play texts. I will use Waiting for Godot, along with Old Times, to develop an argument about the way that Beckett and Pinter use stage directions in these two plays. I will do this by pulling examples from the text and analyzing them. I will look for both consistencies and trends within the text and between the two plays. I will also use textual examples to supplement the arguments of other scholarly work that I will incorporate into my paper. Cima, Gay Gibson. Performing Women. N.p.: Cornell University Press, 1994. Print. In this piece, Cima makes arguments about how Pinter stages his plays and uses different lenses through which the audience can view the play and the characters can view each other. More relevantly to this paper, she makes arguments about physical presence and the effects of movement, using textual evidence and her own analysis of that evidence. I will use her arguments and textual examples to support my own arguments. With a different approach to the same topic, Cima will alter my argument slightly while still reinforcing my basic claims. Also, some of her arguments mesh nicely with those of Esslin and Skloot. Esslin, Martin. Absurd Drama. N.p.: Penguin Books, 1965. Print. In the Introduction to his book Absurd Drama, Esslin introduces the concept of the Theatre of the Absurd and surveys the playwrights that he considers part of this Theatre. Specifically, he discusses the way that Beckett and Pinter use a variety of methods to express complex images, which he calls poetic. Among these methods, he discusses the use of stage directions and movement, saying that the playwrights use movement to contribute to the formation of these images. I will use this source to complement the arguments I am making, as well as draw the link between Beckett and Pinter. The arguments made in this source go well with those made in Cima, and will help particularly to support my arguments about Beckett. Also, Esslins arguments will help to counter those made by Kern. Kern, Edith. Drama Stripped for Inaction: Becketts Godot. Yale French Studies, No. 14, Motley: Todays French Theatre (1954): 41-47. Web. 2 Dec. 2011. This source discusses the action and meaning, or lack thereof, in Waiting for Godot. Kern argues that the detached, distant nature of action and movement in the play robs it of meaning. I will use this argument as a bit of a counter-point or departure from the arguments I make in the paper. Instead of emphasizing meaning, as I will argue, Kern says that stage directions deprive it of meaning, and all of the movement becomes irrelevant. As a result, Kern says, the relationships between the characters become irrelevant as well. She cites several textual examples tangentially, but I will delve more deeply into a textual example to illustrate her arguments and show their validity. Her arguments represent a departure from the other arguments in my paper. Her argument is just a different interpretation of the same general effect that I am identifying, that these playwrights use stage directions to cause movement, which has some effect on the
meaning or emotion in the play. I will counter her argument somewhat, offering insight of my own as well as textual evidence to back it up. Pinter, Harold. Old Times. New York: Grove Press, 1971. Print. This is the play by Harold Pinter that will be one of my two main play texts. I will use Old Times, like Waiting for Godot, to form my arguments about the way that the two playwrights use stage directions. I will do this by pulling examples from the text and analyzing them. I will look for both consistencies and trends within the text and between the two plays. I will also use textual examples to supplement the arguments of other scholarly work that I will incorporate into my paper. Skloot, Robert. "Putting Out The Light: Staging The Theme Of Pinter's Old Times." Quarterly Journal Of Speech 61.3 (1975): 265-270. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 1 Dec. 2011. This source talks about the role of light and staging in Old Times. Though it focuses mostly on the use of lighting in the stage directions, it also discusses the use of stage directions in directing movement. Skloot argues that the role of this movement is to emphasize the existential issues raised in the play, and show that the characters are stuck in a perpetual struggle. I will use this argument to tie the two plays together, as there is evidence of this in both plays. This source has an interesting take on the use of stage directions, and one that complements the other arguments of the paper well. I will use it to further develop my own arguments, particularly those about the relationships of the characters in Old Times.
Works Cited Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. New York: Grove Press, 1994. Print. Cima, Gay Gibson. Performing Women. N.p.: Cornell University Press, 1994. Print. Esslin, Martin. Absurd Drama. N.p.: Penguin Books, 1965. Print. Kern, Edith. Drama Stripped for Inaction: Becketts Godot. Yale French Studies, No. 14, Motley: Todays French Theatre (1954): 41-47. Web. 2 Dec. 2011. Pinter, Harold. Old Times. New York: Grove Press, 1971. Print. Skloot, Robert. "Putting Out The Light: Staging The Theme Of Pinter's Old Times." Quarterly Journal Of Speech 61.3 (1975): 265-270. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 1 Dec. 2011.

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Annotated Bibliography Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. New York: Grove Press, 1994. Print.

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