Posts by PerfectStranger

PerfectStranger

Nov 15, 2007

Dissertations / The concept of hopeless hope in Eugene O'Neill's and Beckett's dramas [4]

Hello there,

I'm about to start writing (actually I should have started already, some time ago) my master's thesis in american and/or english literature... My dissertation is going to be about the concept of 'hopeless hope' in Eugene O'Neill's dramas and possibly in Samuel Beckett's dramas as well (especially 'Waiting for Godot')

The ehing is that I would like to go beyond the drama, and try to delve into prose and fiction, but nothing comes to my mind in the light of 'hopeless hope' (well, I've been thinking about 'Never Let Me Go' by Kazuo Ishiguro, a nearly-Booker prize-winner in 2005, but I'm not sure if the choice is right)

I want to write about human condition, sense of life (or the lack of it), the concept of waiting for death, and mainly, the hope that keeps us all alive...

Anyway, do you guys have any ideas that might be helpful? I need some primary and secondary sources badly (especially some literary criticism on the subject)

I would be so grateful if you could help me out...

Best wishes,

PS

ps. by the way - are there any free academic essays datebases on the internet?

PerfectStranger

Nov 17, 2007

Dissertations / The concept of hopeless hope in Eugene O'Neill's and Beckett's dramas [4]

Hello Sarah!

Well, let me sketch the outline of my work

What I want to do, is to present, on particular works, the concept of hopeless hope (as understood by Eugene O'Neill). Namely:

In chapter I, I want to concentrate upon early works of O'Neill's and his major work "Iceman Cometh" which in various respects is kind of similar to Waiting for Godot by Beckett. In this chapter I want to delve into O'Neill's fatalism or determinism if you like, and by studying is characters present the idea of hopeless hope. In this chapter I also want to present various aspects of 'hopeless hope' ie. those that are visible in the theatre of tragedy and the theatre of the absurd.

In the second chapter I want to concentrate on Beckett's Waiting For Godot, with Godot understood in terms of a devine being, namely - God. I want to descrive the hopelessness of Vladimir and Estragon's lives, maybe in the light of The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. Waiting for Godot is a great example of absurdity of life, in my humble opinion.

I was also thinking about chapter 3... where I could give some space to some prose & fiction... but I don't know where to start... Maybe Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go... or maybe The Unnamable by Beckett, which closes with 'you must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on.'

I don't know... Yet, what I do know, is that I can't visit my advisor right know... she's in hospital , she's been there for 1 month now, and I have no idea when she's coming back, and I cannot wait till then cause I want my thesis finished :)