Grice's Cooperative Strategies in Pinter's Plays

This book aims at the application of pragmatic entity, the Co-operative Principle and its maxims to one of the forms of literature, namely, the absurd drama. It tries to unfold usefulness of the Co-operative Principle in study of literature. It also throws light on the study of literature with a new perspective. Its major purpose is to explore how communication is meaning-oriented and how Pragmatics helps readers to arrive at the exact meaning. The selected conversational pieces from Harold Pinter¿s plays namely The Birthday Party and The Caretaker enable us to study how observance or violation of maxims of the Cooperative Principle helps to make conversation smooth as well as complicated, both at surface level and deeper level. The present book asserts that the pragmatic approach to a literary form offers adequate information and insight by reaching at hidden meaning. The author expects that this book will stand as a valid reference book to the readers and authors of English Language and Literature.