Twentieth-century English literature Terence Rattigan and Noël Coward were challenged in the 1950s by these Angry Young Men, in plays like John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger" (1956). Arnold Wesker and Nell Dunn also brought social concerns to the stage. Again in the 1950s, the absurdist play "Waiting for Godot" (1955) (originally "En attendant Godot", 1952), by Irish writer Samuel Beckett profoundly affected British drama. The Theatre of the Absurd influenced Harold Pinter (born 1930), author of (The Birthday Party, 1958), whose works are often characterised by menace or claustrophobia. Beckett also influenced Tom Stoppard (born 1937) ("Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead", 1966).
Postmodern literature For example, some mark the beginning of postmodernism with the first publication of John Hawkes' "The Cannibal" in 1949, the first performance of "En attendant Godot" in 1953 ("Waiting for Godot", 1955), the first publication of "Howl" in 1956 or of "Naked Lunch" in 1959. For others the beginning is marked by moments in critical theory: Jacques Derrida's "Structure, Sign, and Play" lecture in 1966 or as late as Ihab Hassan's usage in "The Dismemberment of Orpheus" in 1971. Brian McHale details his main thesis on this shift, although many postmodern works have developed out of modernism, modernism is characterised