A comparative study of two of the foremost contemporary playwrights. We will set Pinter's The Birthday Party and The Dumb Waiter alongside Beckett's Waiting for Godot; The Homecoming next to Endgame; Happy Days and Play near Old Times and Betrayal. Attention will also be given to some of the short plays that Beckett and Pinter have written for the stage, radio, and television: Krapp's Last Tape, The Collection, All That Fall, Not I, Rockaby, A Kind of Alaska, Catastrophe, and One for the Road. The works will be considered as both literary and theatrical texts, and at different points may be connected to projects undertaken by Williamstheatre and in Theatre Department courses. Requirements: one 4- to 5-page paper, and an independent project of each student's own devising that will result in an essay of 15-20 pages. Prerequisite: a 100-level English course, except 150. Enrollment limited to 25. (Post-1900)