Harold Pinter’s Plays and Postmodernism

Abstract

The arrival of Pinter (1930-2008), as a dramatist, revolutionized the theatre world of the 20th century. He belongs to the postwar decades when British society was undergoing a major transformation both in the political realm and in the theatre. It was a period when modernity was being challenged by the new literary movement of Postmodernism. During the 1960s, the voices of the philosopher Derrida, the aesthetician Lyotard, as well as the critic-theorist Hassan were theorizing about postmodernism in the field of literature. They declared a “paradigm shift” from modernity‟s ideas of truth and reality. They declared the death of objective truth. According to them, what was right for one person was not necessarily right for another. Pinter‟s works also represent changing styles in the arts with the advent of Postmodernism. Since his first play The Room (1957), Pinter‟s work displayed a very tense and hostile environment where characters show a sense of alienation, sarcasm, and violence. A distinctive style emerged in his plays, a sort of almost disjointed dialogue in which silences punctuated the action and created a thick unspoken violence. This was later termed as the famous “Pinter Pause” by critics of the theatre. Pinter began writing in the late 1950‟s after years of work as an actor. From the very beginning of his career as a dramatist, he utterly changed the public‟s expectations of stage language and made the audiences wonder if his characters were talking to communicate effectively or just confusing each other. Language in Pinter‟s plays is uncertain. There seems to be no direct reference between a signifier and a signified in his plays. Consequently, meaning falls into a net of possibilities of interpretation. Because of the multiplicity of meanings, Pinter‟s characters often remain mysterious. Their thoughts and actions are often ambiguous and this is known as a postmodern characteristic.