Mapping Power Struggles In Harold Pinter's Theater

Harold Pinter has been generally considered as the foremost representative of British drama in the second half of the twentieth century. His name has entered the English language as an adjective to describe a particular atmosphere and environment in drama: Pinteresque. In October 2005, Pinter was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his remarkable presentation of human predicament in modern society. The present thesis intends to examine the power relations as reflected in the character's dialogue, body gestures, and the spatiality of the stage in Harold Pinter's early four plays—The Room, The Birthday Party, The Dumb Waiter, and The Caretaker, based on Michel Foucault's theory of power, discourse, space, and the body. Focusing on the power relations in discourse, space, and the body, this thesis explores the gender confrontation and the political conflicts in these plays, which are the manifestations of power jockeying as stated by Foucault.This thesis is composed of five parts. The first part contains a brief introduction to Pinter's artistic development in terms of thematic concerns and dramatic techniques and a general review of Pinter criticism in recent years.Chapter One lays bare the theoretical foundation that this thesis is built upon—Foucault's theory of power. In Foucault's philosophy, power is exercised in various aspects of the cultural and social life such as discourse, space, and the body. Discourse is a form of power that can be found in every aspect of the society. It is exercised through the strategies of domination and those of resistance. Like discourse, space is also considered by Foucault as a site for power struggles. He put forward the notions of"heterotopias"and"panopticon"as the parameters to examine the social constructions inscribed in geography and space. Finally, Foucault's theory is concerned with how power is embodied in human body which bears the disciplines and punishment as stipulated by laws and conventions. In Pinter's early plays, all the conflicts evolve around the will to power, as all the characters are trapped desperately in the battles of imposing and resisting omnipresent menace and domination.Chapter Two analyzes the gender confrontations reflected in the characters' dialogues and body languages as well as the spatial arrangement of the stage. Through excluding women from certain topics or denying their knowledge about the subjects of their conversations, male characters in Pinter's plays have deprived women of their power in familial and social institutions and coerced them into accepting their subjective status. Similarly, the male characters in Pinter's plays are also engaged in a fight over their dominance in the room, which epitomizes the struggle for dominance in the whole society. Such coercion usually meets with strong counteractions from the oppressed, which usually makes the struggle a no-win situation.Chapter Three centers on the political conflicts in Pinter's four plays. Also based on Foucault's theory of power, this chapter examines the class conflict and the confrontation between bureaucracy and individual to see how the social institutions, as the apparatus of discipline and control, paralyzes individuals and deprives their free will and their ability to act.As a conclusion, this thesis argues that power struggle is omnipotent in Pinter's early plays, in which the characters are afflicted with the unnamable threat, irrational emotional angst, and a desperate will to dominate others, which reflects the social reality of contemporary world.