A Linguistic and Literary Exploration of The Prisoners by Usman Ali as a Pastiche of Waiting for Godot

Abstract

The present study aims to explore The Prisoners, a play by Pakistani playwright, Usman Ali, as Pastiche of Waiting for Godot. The Prisoners is a creative blend of modernist themes and style. It is deemed appropriate to make use of any of the postmodern lens to explore any postmodern text. Pastiche is a mode of intertextuality which finds vivid expression in the craft of The Prisoners. Pastiche is a style which is produced by borrowing fragments, ingredients or motifs from other works. The Prisoners, an artistic blend of modernist themes and style, written in Pakistani context, is modelled on Waiting for Godot, which has World War II in its background, therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore The Prisoners (2018) by Ali (1978) as a Pastiche of Waiting for Godot (1953) by Samuel Beckett (1906 – 1989). The paper also explores how a work of art, crafted in Eastern culture, can be a rewriting of the work of art, created in western culture. Thematically, both the plays include human predicament related to angst. Hence, human angst and predicament is a theme in Anglophone Pakistan Literature. The study reveals idealization of modern literary techniques in contemporary Anglophone Pakistani Literature.