TRANSFERENCE IN SELECTED STAGE PLAYS OF HAROLD PINTER (BRITISH DRAMA, PSYCHOANALYSIS)

Transference, the central concept in psychoanalysis, is a hermeneutical vehicle for the interpretation of Harold Pinter's plays. Transference provides an instrumentality by means of which Pinter's plays can be viewed from the psychoanalytic standpoint. I have compared transference in the psychoanalytic situation with the transferences between the characters in three of Harold Pinter's plays. An awareness of the transferential relationships between the characters in the plays adds a depth of meaning, which would, otherwise, remain inaccessible.; My method is heuristic, as much as possible devoid of preconceived notions, judgmental biases or preformulated schemata. Chapter One establishes a working definition of transference. Chapter Two is a discussion of the psychoanalytic process as a paradigm for the interpretation of Pinter's plays. In Chapters Three, Four and Five I analogize the transference in psychoanalysis and the transference relationships between the characters in three of Pinter's plays, The Room, A Slight Ache and Tea Party.; My main hypothesis is that a study of selected stage plays by Harold Pinter, from the standpoint of transference, constitutes a source of new insight into the meaning of Pinter's plays. I explore the transferential relationships between the characters in the plays by giving the transference the opportunity to emerge by means of the tone, imagery, cadence, affect and context of the dialogue. I approach Pinter's plays with an openness to all of the layers of meaning which each play may suggest, while experiencing the transference in conjunction with my countertransferential thoughts, fantasies and free associations.; My contribution to the field of psychoanalytic criticism of modern British drama is to explicate the way in which the hermeneutic search is furthered by the application of transference to Harold Pinter's stage plays. The countertransference is a source of plausible associations to the text, which, because of its intentional ambiguity, lends itself to a variety of interpretations. Using the idea of transference to interpret the dialogue of Pinter's plays and reacting to the dialogue countertransferentially constitute a method of psychoanalytic criticism which adds another dimension to the search for the meaning of Pinter's plays.