The discourse of the opressed and the language of the abandoned in selected plays of Harold Pinter

[摘要] The focus of this study is to explore the notions of oppression and abandonment andlanguage and discourse as it pertains to the works of Harold Pinter. A selected reading ofthree psychoanalysts: Erich Fromm, Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan facilitates anexplanation of the psychological effects of oppression, violence, victimisation andalienation. According to Fromm, isolation is wo/man's most prodigious fear as beingabandoned from society institutes psychological disturbances. In the Pinterian landscape,the characters are subjected to isolation and abandonment due to the oppressive society inwhich they are positioned. The Freudian concept of unconscious discourse offers anengaging explanation of the way in which Pinter's characters use discourse to signifytheir ontological fears and repressed desires. Freud's theory on the mechanisms of the id,ego and super-ego, and how these concepts correspond to repression and thus anxiety,highlights the significant themes in Pinter's plays. The Lacanian notion of Other as itrelates to the laws and restrictive demands of society is manifested in Pinter' s plays as anomnipresent menace. Thus the characters attempt to retreat from society as it threatens toannihilate them, should they not conform. Ironically the tyrannical society is too powerfulfor the characters, and consequently destroys them when they endeavour to defy the lawsof the Other. Accordingly Pinter's plays end with this final image of oppressed andabandoned characters struggling in vain against the oppressive Other.

[发布机构] University of the Free State