Beginning in the late 1950s, several authors began
writing plays with absurdist themes in a realistic
guise that depict power struggles in which
characters use seemingly everyday language to combat
ambiguously menacing forces, to negotiate
hierarchical relationships, to create and maintain
character masks, and to coerce others into accepting
subjective versions of reality. This book analyzes
the conversational implications of selected works by
Harold Pinter, Simon Gray, David Mamet, and Sam
Shepard toward a better understanding of how
characters pursue goals with masked language and
indirect speech acts disguised as mundane
conversation. Four plays are treated with a
discourse analysis to explore how everyday-sounding,
dramatic conversation defamiliarizes the spectator
with language as an effective means of communication
by reacquainting him/her with commonly occurring
discursive phenomena, so habitualized as to have
become hidden. This book is intended for
professional and student actors and directors
studying both stage and camera work. The analytical
methodology put forth will also assist scholars of
dramatic literature.