Topic 13 - Shared knowledge and absurdist drama (Session A) > Topic Summary

What will we learn in this topic?

In session B we will not learn any new analytical tools, but instead will use what we have discovered about shared knowledge and presuppositions in session A to help us understand something about how absurdist drama creates the kinds of effects it does.

To do this we will look at an extract from Edward Albee's Zoo Story. Then, as a kind of round-up to the drama section of the course (and indeed the whole course) we will look at a complete absurdist text, a sketch by Harold Pinter called Applicant. In analysing Applicant we will examine the shared (and unshared!) assumptions involved, but also some other aspects of the sketch, using what we have learned about in other parts of the drama section of the course - turn-taking in particular.

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