1st Edition

The Pinter Ethic The Erotic Aesthetic

By Penelope Prentice Copyright 2000
    568 Pages 2 Color Illustrations
    by Routledge

    480 Pages 2 Color Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The only comprehensive guide to the plays of one of the world's greatest yet most puzzling contemporary dramatists, The Pinter Ethic penetrates the mystery of Harold Pinter's work with compelling and authoritative insights that locate and disclose the primal power of his drama in his characters' powerplay for dominance. With remarkable clarity, Penelope Prentice's close reading of Pinter's work untangles the multiple ambiguities, complex conflicts and contradictory actions which continue to baffle, bewilder, and confound critics and audiences. She reveals that Pinter's plays reflect not a vision of postmodern hopelessness in a world threatening to self-destruct, but provoke unguessed choice and action that enlarge the concept of love and link it to justice. Offering a definitive analysis of Pinter's work--from his early poetry, fiction, interviews, essays and novel The Dwarfs to his most recent play Celebration --Prentice demonstrates why Pinter's work can only be communicated through drama where attitude and intention may count for little, but where action is all.

    General Editor's Note Preface The Pinter Ethic: Overview Harold Pinter: Biography Part 1 The Early Work - Power as a Private Affair 1. Introduction: Pinter's Achievement 2. The Birthday party : choice, Action and Responsibility - The Pinter Ethic Defined 3. The Room and The Revue Sketches : The Ethic in the Early Work - Dominance and Destruction 4. The Slight Ache as Fulcrum: Leveling Dominant and Subservient Roles - The Triumph of Vitality and Truth 5. A Night Out : Vitality Vitiated 6. The Hothouse : Madness and Violence 7. The Caretaker :Dominance and Subservience Equated - The Human Connection 8. Night School : Possible Justice Without Love 9. The Dwarfs : Dominance as Betrayal 10. The Servant : Paradigmatic Powerplays 11. The Collection and The Lover : Identity Gained by Deliberate Pretense 12. The Pumpkin Eater : Married Love and Justice 13. The Homecoming : Dominance, Choice, and the Ethic Revised 14. The Quiller Memorandum : Torture Without Threat 15. Tea Party and The Basement : The Illusive Qualities of Power 16. Accident : Death, Desire and Birth Part 2 The Liminal Play of the Middle Period 16. Landscape, Silence and Night : Where Powerplays Vanish 17. The Go-Between : freedom Reborn 18. Old Times : Triple Dominance 19. Langrishe, Go Down, A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu: Proust Screenplay , and Monologue : Remembrances of Things Past 20. The French Lieutenant's Woman and The Last Tycoon :Love Gained and Lost 21. Brtrayal : The Past Regained Part 3 This is the End My Friend, THe Lovedeath Apocalyptic Vision Revised: Love, Justice and Power Reclaimed 22. Precisely and Family Voices : Loveeath 23. A Kind of Alska : Idenitty Unresolved 24. Victoria Station : Love and POwer Revisited 25. One for the Road : The End of the Road 26. MOuntain Language : Torture Revisited 27. Turtle Diary, Vicotry, The handmaid's tale, Reunion, The Heat of the day, The Comfort of Strangers, The Remains of the Day , and The Trial : The Screenplays of the 1980s and Early 1990s 28. Party Time and The New World Order : Love and justice Revisited 29. Moonlight : Lovedeath Wedded 30 Some Conclusions on Love, Justice and Power in the Pinter Ethic: The Public Consequences of Private Acts Selected Bibliography Index - Form and Innovation

    Biography

    Penelope Prentice is Professor of English at D'Youville College. She is an award-winning poet and playwright whose works include Thriller, Michael Tyro, and How to Seduce Your Husband.

    "Penelope Prentice has written a penetrating vision of the Pinter mythos and entered the very human skin of the characters and plays of a profound body of work by one of the most important playwrights of our time." -- Lawrence Sacharow, OBIE Award Winner
    "A refreshing approach to Pinter's technique." -- Ann C. Hall, Ph.D., President of the Harold Pinter Society, Ohio Dominican College
    "Penelope prentice sees Pinter clearly and she sees him whole. Her book is an important contribution to Pinter studies." -- Michael Billington
    "distinctive for its comprehensive attention to Pinter's work and its compelling argument for seeing in Pinter a positive vision of love and justice." -- Choice
    "an important book [that] is likely to remain so for years...sets a standard of excellence against which all of the others will be measured." -- Cithara