Brutal spaces: Political discourse in the later plays of Harold Pinter, 1980--1996

It is generally understood by those who study modern drama that Harold Pinter's canon can be distinguished between the metaphorical plays of his early period (1957-1978) and the overtly political drama of his later works (1980-1996). Much critical attention has been devoted to how best to understand the relationship between these two seemingly distinct halves as some critical voices argue that his later political works did not live up to the stature of his early canon. Although many acknowledge that there is at least some tangible connection between the two halves, for the most part very little attention has been afforded to this later period of his oeuvre as had been applied to his earlier polemical works. This dissertation argues for a reevaluation of this later body of work as not only an essential part of Pinter's drama, but also a thematic extension of what he has always produced for the stage.;This dissertation applies a methodology to these works that focuses on how Pinter calls attention to the theatricality embedded within political spaces and discourse of any kind. Within the innocuous landscapes that his plays and characters inhabit is the political struggle for power and control over the performance of identity. These are theatrical spaces made brutal by the political rhetoric that exists both in and outside the space of the stage. Living rooms become interrogation chambers, while a chair and a desk become the location of political torture. Pinter conveys a political reality to audiences that underscores the acerbic theatricality embedded within the discourse of the world's superpowers. By drawing attention to these underrepresented plays, this project aims to bring a new focus to these too often disregarded works and realize their relevance to our own contemporary political reality.