The Lesser-known:A Feminist Reading Of The Leading Female Characters In Harold Pinter’s Plays Betrayal And A Kind Of Alaska

Harold Pinter,the 2005 Nobel Laureate for Literature,has gradually become a more “popular”subject for in-depth research in China over the last decade or so.However,due to his long span of career as a dramatist,his works have not gained equal critical acclaim or attention,for most of the critics seem to have focused on his early works.In his interview for the Charlie Rose Show in 2001,he revealed that in the very beginning of his creating career,he had paid attention to the creation of different gender roles.This thesis,by analyzing the leading female characters in the plays of Betrayal and A Kind of Alaska,aims at contributing to the studies of Pinter’s second-phase writing as a playwright.Theories of feminism,especially those of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler,are used as a theoretical framework to interpret the female images and related gender issues.The current study shows that Emma in Betrayal and Deborah in A Kind of Alaska are more positive images than those in his early plays and display a common predicament facing women.The thesis also discusses the time techniques Pinter has employed in the two plays,which is not only part of his artistic creativity but also sheds light on the presentation of the gender theme in his plays.