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Politics of Harold Pinter’s Dystopian Drama: One for the Road and Party Time

Yıl 2020, Cilt: 37 Sayı: 2, 330 - 340, 31.12.2020
https://doi.org/10.32600/huefd.683007

Öz

This article discusses two of Harold Pinter’s political plays, One for the Road and Party Time as examples of dystopian drama which criticise the contextual background of 1980s Turkey and 1990s Britain respectively. This reading illustrates that dystopian images observed in Harold Pinter’s political plays, One for the Road and Party Time are used as responses to certain socio-historical problems of two different locations. While the panorama of a military state in One for the Road provides a criticism of the political atmosphere of Turkey following the 1980 coup, the economically unbalanced and depoliticised society presented in Party Time resonates with the socio-economic inequality of Britain during the Thatcher and Major periods. Unspecified settings of the plays, ambiguous characterisation, and hierarchical social structures presented in these works are viewed among the dystopian elements which help Pinter criticise the political atmosphere of Turkey following the 1980 coup and the unbalanced socio-economic background of contemporary Britain. Discussing dystopian narrative elements – that are commonly studied in relation to the novel genre – in relation to dramatic texts offers the idea that although there is no reference to particular states or political figures in these plays, dystopian elements such as totalitarian regime and state violence derive their material from the real events of the two countries. By way of this dystopian perspective, it is aimed to discuss the necessity of observing the close relationship between Pinter’s plays and their historical background despite their seeming distance from their political milieux. A reading of Pinter’s works with an emphasis on their dystopian images also helps to interpret Pinter’s detached attitude to the politics of his plays from an alternative perspective.

Kaynakça

  • Batty, M. (2001). Harold Pinter. Michigan: Northcote.
  • Billington, M. (1991). Party Time - Premiere. Harold Pinter. Retrieved from http://www.haroldpinter.org/plays/plays_partytime.shtml.
  • Booker, M. K. (1994a). Dystopian Literature: A Theory and Research Guide. Westport: Greenwood.
  • Booker, M. K. (1994b). The Dystopian Impulse in Modern Literature: Fiction as Social Criticism. Westport: Greenwood.
  • Cannadine, D. (1998). Class in Britain. New Haven: Yale UP.
  • Cave, R. A. (2009). Body Language in Pinter’s Plays. In P. Raby (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter (pp. 123-46). Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
  • Chiasson, B. (2013). Harold Pinter's ‘More Precisely Political Dramas’, or a Post-1983 Economy of Affect. Modern Drama, 56 (1), 80-102.
  • Claeys, G. The Origins of Dystopia: Wells, Huxley and Orwell. In G. Claeys (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature (pp. 107-35). Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
  • Durna, T. and İnal, A. (2010). 12 Eylül, Medya ve Demokratikleşme Sorunu. Mulkiye, 34 (268), 125-47.
  • Germanou, M. (2013). ‘The Dead Are Still Looking at Us’: Harold Pinter, the Spectral Face, and Human Rights. New Theatre Quarterly 29 (4), 360-69.
  • Gottlieb, E. (2001). Dystopian Fiction East and West: Universe of Terror and Trial. Montreal: McGill-Queen's UP.
  • Grimes, C. (2005). Harold Pinter's Politics: A Silence Beyond Echo. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson UP.
  • Kaçmaz, E. (2011). A New Historicist Approach to Harold Pinter’s One for the Road. Nevsehir University Journal of Social Sciences, 1, 51-66.
  • Luckhurst, M. (2007). Harold Pinter and Poetic Politics. In R. D'Monte and G. Saunders (Eds.), Cool Britannia? British Political Drama in the 1990s (pp. 56-71). Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Luckhurst, M. (2009). Speaking Out: Harold Pinter and Freedom of Expression. In P. Raby (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter (pp. 105-21). Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
  • Marshall, G., Newby, H. & Rose, D. (1989). Social Class in Modern Britain. London: Routledge.
  • Merritt, S. H. (2014). Pinter and Politics. In L. Gordon (Ed.), Pinter at 70: A Casebook (pp. 129-61). London: Routledge.
  • Milling, J. (2012). Modern British Playwriting. Voices, Documents, New Interpretations. London: Methuen.
  • Peacock, D. K. (1997). Harold Pinter and the New British Theatre. Michigan: Greenwood.
  • Pinter, H. (2003, July 20). Battersea Arts Centre - Post Show Discussion 'Party Time' & 'One for the
  • Road' by Pinter. British Library Sound and Moving Image Catalogue. Retrieved from http://sami.bl.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/x/0/49/%20;%20charset=UTF-8
  • Pinter, H. (2005). Harold Pinter, Art, Truth and Politics: Nobel Lecture. Nobel Prize. Retrieved from https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2005/pinter/lecture/
  • Pinter, H. (1985). Interview by Nick Hern. In H. Pinter, One for the Road (pp. 7-23). London: Methuen.
  • Pinter, H. (2006). One for the Road. The Essential Pinter: Selections from the Work of Harold Pinter (pp. 319-37). N.p.: Grove.
  • Pinter, H. (1991). Party Time. London: Faber and Faber.
  • Pinter, H. (1985). Postscript. In H. Pinter, One for the Road (p. 24). London: Methuen.
  • Pope, N., and Pope, H. (1998). Turkey Unveiled: A History of Modern Turkey. New York: Overlook.
  • Prentice, P. (1994). The Pinter Ethic: The Erotic Aesthetic. New York: Garland.
  • Rabey, D. I. (2003). English Drama since 1940. London: Routledge.
  • Reitz, B. I Just Wouldn't Want to be at the Other End of His Anger:' Harold Pinter's Political Plays of the Nineties. In A. Knapp et al. (Eds.), British Drama of the 1990s (pp. 165-79). Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter. Santirojprapai, A. D. (2008). Brutal Spaces: Political Discourse in the Later Plays of Harold Pinter, 1980-1996. Dissertation. Saint Louis University.
  • Silverstein, M. (1993). Harold Pinter and the Language of Cultural Power. Lewisburg: Bucknell UP.
  • Stewart, G. (2013). Bang! A History of Britain in the 1980s. London: Atlantic.
  • Thatcher, M. (2016). Interview for Woman's Own (‘No Such Thing as Society’). Interview with Douglas Keay. Margaret Thatcher Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106689
  • Visser, D. (1996). Communicating Torture: The Dramatic Language of Harold Pinter. Neophilologus 80, 327-40.
  • Walker, A. (1997). Introduction: The Strategy of Inequality. In A. Walker and C. Walker (Eds.), Britain Divided: The Growth of Social Exclusion in the 1980s and 1990s (pp. 1-17). N.p.: Child Poverty Action.
  • Zürcher, E. J. (2004). Turkey: A Modern History. London: I. B. Tauris.

Harold Pinter'ın One for the Road ve Party Time Oyunlarındaki Distopik Siyaset

Yıl 2020, Cilt: 37 Sayı: 2, 330 - 340, 31.12.2020
https://doi.org/10.32600/huefd.683007

Öz

Bu makale, Harold Pinter’ın sırasıyla 1980’ler Türkiyesi ve 1990’lar İngiltere’sinin bağlamsal arka planını eleştiren One for the Road ve Party Time başlıklı iki politik oyununu distopik tiyatro örnekleri olarak tartışmaktadır. Bu okuma, Harold Pinter’ın siyasî oyunlarında gözlemlenen distopik imgelerin iki farklı ülkenin belirli sosyal ve tarihî sorunlarına birer tepki/yorum niteliğinde olduğunu göstermektedir. One for the Road’daki polis devlet temsili 1980 darbesi sonrası Türkiye’sinin siyasî atmosferinin bir eleştirisi olarak görülürken Party Time’da gözlemlenen ekonomik dengesizlik ve apolitik toplumsal düzen Thatcher ve Major dönemleri İngiltere’sinin sosyo-ekonomik dengesizliğine ışık tutar. Oyunların belirtilmemiş mekânları, muğlak karakter temsilleri ve hiyerarşik toplumsal yapılar, Pinter’ın 1980 darbesi sonrası Türkiye’si ve 1990’lar İngiltere’sini eleştirmek için kullandığı biçemsel öğeler olarak incelenmektedir. Daha çok roman türünde incelenen distopik anlatı öğlelerini tiyatro türünde tartışmak, bu oyunlarda gerçek bir devlet veya gerçek siyasî kişilerden bahsedilmemesine rağmen totaliter rejim ve devlet destekli şiddet gibi distopik öğelerin kaynağını bu iki ülkede yaşanan gerçek olaylardan aldığını göstermektedir. Bu distopik bakış açısı yoluyla - görünüşte uzak gibi dursalar da - Pinter’ın oyunları ve tarihsel arka planları arasındaki yakın ilişkiyi incelemenin gerekliliği vurgulanmaktadır. Pinter’ın eserlerini barındırdıkları distopik öğelere dikkat ederek okumak aynı zamanda yazarın eserlerinin siyasî içeriğine olan mesafeli tutumunu inceleme konusunda da alternatif bir yorum getirmektedir.

Kaynakça

  • Batty, M. (2001). Harold Pinter. Michigan: Northcote.
  • Billington, M. (1991). Party Time - Premiere. Harold Pinter. Retrieved from http://www.haroldpinter.org/plays/plays_partytime.shtml.
  • Booker, M. K. (1994a). Dystopian Literature: A Theory and Research Guide. Westport: Greenwood.
  • Booker, M. K. (1994b). The Dystopian Impulse in Modern Literature: Fiction as Social Criticism. Westport: Greenwood.
  • Cannadine, D. (1998). Class in Britain. New Haven: Yale UP.
  • Cave, R. A. (2009). Body Language in Pinter’s Plays. In P. Raby (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter (pp. 123-46). Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
  • Chiasson, B. (2013). Harold Pinter's ‘More Precisely Political Dramas’, or a Post-1983 Economy of Affect. Modern Drama, 56 (1), 80-102.
  • Claeys, G. The Origins of Dystopia: Wells, Huxley and Orwell. In G. Claeys (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature (pp. 107-35). Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
  • Durna, T. and İnal, A. (2010). 12 Eylül, Medya ve Demokratikleşme Sorunu. Mulkiye, 34 (268), 125-47.
  • Germanou, M. (2013). ‘The Dead Are Still Looking at Us’: Harold Pinter, the Spectral Face, and Human Rights. New Theatre Quarterly 29 (4), 360-69.
  • Gottlieb, E. (2001). Dystopian Fiction East and West: Universe of Terror and Trial. Montreal: McGill-Queen's UP.
  • Grimes, C. (2005). Harold Pinter's Politics: A Silence Beyond Echo. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson UP.
  • Kaçmaz, E. (2011). A New Historicist Approach to Harold Pinter’s One for the Road. Nevsehir University Journal of Social Sciences, 1, 51-66.
  • Luckhurst, M. (2007). Harold Pinter and Poetic Politics. In R. D'Monte and G. Saunders (Eds.), Cool Britannia? British Political Drama in the 1990s (pp. 56-71). Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Luckhurst, M. (2009). Speaking Out: Harold Pinter and Freedom of Expression. In P. Raby (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter (pp. 105-21). Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
  • Marshall, G., Newby, H. & Rose, D. (1989). Social Class in Modern Britain. London: Routledge.
  • Merritt, S. H. (2014). Pinter and Politics. In L. Gordon (Ed.), Pinter at 70: A Casebook (pp. 129-61). London: Routledge.
  • Milling, J. (2012). Modern British Playwriting. Voices, Documents, New Interpretations. London: Methuen.
  • Peacock, D. K. (1997). Harold Pinter and the New British Theatre. Michigan: Greenwood.
  • Pinter, H. (2003, July 20). Battersea Arts Centre - Post Show Discussion 'Party Time' & 'One for the
  • Road' by Pinter. British Library Sound and Moving Image Catalogue. Retrieved from http://sami.bl.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/x/0/49/%20;%20charset=UTF-8
  • Pinter, H. (2005). Harold Pinter, Art, Truth and Politics: Nobel Lecture. Nobel Prize. Retrieved from https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2005/pinter/lecture/
  • Pinter, H. (1985). Interview by Nick Hern. In H. Pinter, One for the Road (pp. 7-23). London: Methuen.
  • Pinter, H. (2006). One for the Road. The Essential Pinter: Selections from the Work of Harold Pinter (pp. 319-37). N.p.: Grove.
  • Pinter, H. (1991). Party Time. London: Faber and Faber.
  • Pinter, H. (1985). Postscript. In H. Pinter, One for the Road (p. 24). London: Methuen.
  • Pope, N., and Pope, H. (1998). Turkey Unveiled: A History of Modern Turkey. New York: Overlook.
  • Prentice, P. (1994). The Pinter Ethic: The Erotic Aesthetic. New York: Garland.
  • Rabey, D. I. (2003). English Drama since 1940. London: Routledge.
  • Reitz, B. I Just Wouldn't Want to be at the Other End of His Anger:' Harold Pinter's Political Plays of the Nineties. In A. Knapp et al. (Eds.), British Drama of the 1990s (pp. 165-79). Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter. Santirojprapai, A. D. (2008). Brutal Spaces: Political Discourse in the Later Plays of Harold Pinter, 1980-1996. Dissertation. Saint Louis University.
  • Silverstein, M. (1993). Harold Pinter and the Language of Cultural Power. Lewisburg: Bucknell UP.
  • Stewart, G. (2013). Bang! A History of Britain in the 1980s. London: Atlantic.
  • Thatcher, M. (2016). Interview for Woman's Own (‘No Such Thing as Society’). Interview with Douglas Keay. Margaret Thatcher Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106689
  • Visser, D. (1996). Communicating Torture: The Dramatic Language of Harold Pinter. Neophilologus 80, 327-40.
  • Walker, A. (1997). Introduction: The Strategy of Inequality. In A. Walker and C. Walker (Eds.), Britain Divided: The Growth of Social Exclusion in the 1980s and 1990s (pp. 1-17). N.p.: Child Poverty Action.
  • Zürcher, E. J. (2004). Turkey: A Modern History. London: I. B. Tauris.
Toplam 36 adet kaynakça vardır.

Ayrıntılar

Birincil Dil İngilizce
Konular Edebi Çalışmalar, Sanat ve Edebiyat, Uygulamalı Tiyatro
Bölüm Makaleler
Yazarlar

Özlem Özmen 0000-0003-3432-8621

Yayımlanma Tarihi 31 Aralık 2020
Gönderilme Tarihi 31 Ocak 2020
Kabul Tarihi 3 Haziran 2020
Yayımlandığı Sayı Yıl 2020 Cilt: 37 Sayı: 2

Kaynak Göster

APA Özmen, Ö. (2020). Politics of Harold Pinter’s Dystopian Drama: One for the Road and Party Time. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 37(2), 330-340. https://doi.org/10.32600/huefd.683007


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