Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A ‘Citizen of the World’: Aestheticizing Politics

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Late Harold Pinter

  • 224 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter surveys Pinter’s political speeches and activism. The analysis indicates how Pinter’s truth claims and framing of issues in terms of moral interest are moments within a broader discourse which relies upon affect. The force of the discourse is observed to work at destabilizing political and social consensus and complicating the conceptual frames that enable one to resort to common sense understandings of politics, language which abstracts affect and sinks the mind into the world of opinion and thereby prevents thinking. This style can, moreover, be framed in aesthetic terms, the argument being that as a citizen Pinter is informed by his sensibility as an artist and in that he aestheticizes politics as a means of critique.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Among others, Michael Billington and Yael Zarhy-Levo have respectively observed this. The former understands that ‘Pinter’s political anger is driven by something more than moral disgust with the rhetoric of power. Behind the anger lies a belief in the validity of every single human life.’ (Billington 2007, 396); and the latter obverses that ‘[f]ollowing A Kind of Alaska [1982] Pinter is presented as a rather engaged playwright who offers human concern.’ (Zarhy-Levo 2001, 219).

  2. 2.

    One potential contradiction presents itself in the single promotional reference to socialism Pinter makes in ‘Caribbean Cold War’ (Pinter 2009g, 231–232). Curiously, however, this is not a trend in his activism and cannot, I contend, be considered central to his discourse and overall project.

  3. 3.

    Cf. Pinter’s ‘Wilfred Owen Award for Poetry,’ which states: ‘We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery and degradation to the Iraqi people and call it “bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East”. But as we all know, we have not been welcomed with the predicted flowers.’ (Pinter 2009za, 267–268) While this version contains the striking image of the flowers, note how the Nobel version contains the subtle yet powerful insertion of the word ‘death’ at the end of the long and bristling chain of equivalence Pinter produces.

  4. 4.

    All three were published in the French newspaper Libération and in the Guardian between January and March 1991. ‘The Gulf War will not take place’ was published in Libération on 4 January 1991. ‘The Gulf War is not really taking place’ was published in Libération on 6 February 1991. ‘The Gulf War did not take place’ was published in Libération on 29 March 1991.

Bibliography

  • Pinter, Harold. 2001a. Interview by Matthew Tempest. “Pinter: ‘I Won’t Be Silenced’.” Guardian.co.uk. August 3. Accessed February 3, 2008. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2001/aug/03/comment.pressandpublishing. N.P.

  • Pinter, Harold. 2002. “Press Conference.” London: Faber and Faber. N.P.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinter, Harold. 2009d. “Art, Truth and Politics: The Nobel Lecture.” In Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008. 3rd ed. London: Faber and Faber. 285–300.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinter, Harold. 2009e. “Arthur Miller’s Socks.” In Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008. 3rd ed. London: Faber and Faber. 65–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinter, Harold. 2009g. “Caribbean Cold War.” In Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008. 3rd ed. London: Faber and Faber. 229–232.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinter, Harold. 2009j. “Eroding the Language of Freedom.” In Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008. 3rd ed. London: Faber and Faber. 208–209.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinter, Harold. 2009m. “Iraq Debate.” In Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008. 3rd ed. London: Faber and Faber. 265–266.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinter, Harold. 2009n. “It Never Happened.” In Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008. 3rd ed. London: Faber and Faber. 234–237.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinter, Harold. 2009o. “Meeting.” In Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008. 3rd ed. London: Faber and Faber. 274.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinter, Harold. 2009q. “On Being Awarded the German Shakespeare Prize in Hamburg.” In Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008. 3rd ed. London: Faber and Faber. 48–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinter, Harold. 2009v. “The US and El Salvador.” In Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008. 3rd ed. London: Faber and Faber. 226–228.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinter, Harold. 2009w. “The US Elephant Must Be Stopped.” In Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008. 3rd ed. London: Faber and Faber. 205.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinter, Harold. 2009za. “Wilfred Owen Award for Poetry: Acceptance Speech, 18 March 2005.” In Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008. 3rd ed. London: Faber and Faber. 267–268.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arendt, Hannah. 1995. “Letter to Mary McCarthy, September 16, 1963.” New York Times “Books,” February 26. Accessed January 21, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/03/26/specials/mccarthy-arendtlet.html. Originally in Between Friends: The Correspondence of Hannah Arendt and Mary McCarthy 1949–1975. Orlando: Harcourt, Brace.

  • Arendt, Hannah. 2006. On Revolution. Introduction by Jonathan Schell. New York and London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baldwin, Victoria Marie. 2009. “Look for the truth and tell it”: Politics and Harold Pinter. Unpublished M. Phil Dissertation. University of Birmingham. Accessed January 4, 2016. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/402/.

  • Behler, C. “Common Sense.” Welcome to CB’s Homepage. University of Washington. N.D. Accessed January 21, 2016. http://faculty.washington.edu/cbehler/. N.P.

  • Billington, Michael. 2007. Harold Pinter. 2nd ed. London: Faber and Faber.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blair, Tony. 2003. “Speech in the House of Commons Debate on Iraq.” Hansard. March 18. House of Commons, 6th series, vol. 301, cols. 773–774. Accessed February 2, 2016. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmhansrd/vo030318/debtext/30318-06.htm. N.P.

  • Charlton, Joseph. 2011. “Death: Harold Pinter; Introduced by Joseph Charlton.” The Times Literary Supplement: The Leading International Forum for Literary Culture. The-tls.co.uk. Aug. 23. 2011. Accessed August 27, 2011. http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article760322.ece. N.P.

  • Cohn, Ruby. 1962. “The World of Harold Pinter.” The Tulane Drama Revue 6(3), 55–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colebrook, Claire. 2005. “Introduction.” In The Deleuze Dictionary. Edited by Adrian Parr. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 1–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • “Consequentialism.” 1977. The Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought. 2nd ed. Edited by Alan Bullock, Oliver Stallybrass, and Stephen Trombley. Assisted by Bruce Eadie. London: Fontana. 216.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coulter, Gerry. 2009. “Passings – Harold Pinter: Forgetting What Art Knows.” International Journal of Baudrillard Studies 6. no. 2 (July): n.p. Accessed March 4, 2016. http://www2.ubishops.ca/baudrillardstudies/vol-6_2/v6-2-passings-pinter.html.

  • Deleuze, Gilles. 1994. Difference and Repetition. 4th ed. Translated by Paul Patton. London and New York: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. 1983. Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. 3rd ed. Translated by Robert Hurley, Mark Seem, and Helen R. Lane. Preface by Michel Foucault. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Derbyshire, Harry. 2001. “Pinter as Celebrity.” In The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter. Edited by Peter Raby. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 230–245.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Eagleton, Terry. 2003. After Theory. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, David. 2001. “Unthinkable Thoughts: An Interview with Harold Pinter.” Medialens.org. Accessed May 9, 2009. http://www.medialens.org/articles/the_articles/articles_2001/de_Pinter.htm. N.P.

  • Germanou, Maria. 2013. ““The Dead are Still Looking at Us”: Harold Pinter, the Spectral Face, and Human Rights.” New Theatre Quarterly 29, no. 4 (November): 360–369.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giroux, Henry A. 2014. The Violence of Organized Forgetting: Thinking beyond America’s Disimagination Machine. San Francisco: City Lights.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, Lois. 2001. “Preface to the Second Edition.” In Pinter at Seventy: A Casebook. 2nd ed. Edited by Lois Gordon. New York and London: Routledge. xii–xx.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gramsci, Antonio. 1971. Selections from the Prison Notebooks. Edited and Translated by Quentin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith. New York: International Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grimes, Charles. 2005. Harold Pinter’s Politics: A Silence Beyond Echo. Madison, WIS and Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gussow, Mel. 1994. Conversations with Pinter. New York: Grove.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hari, Johann. 2005. “Pinter does not Deserve the Nobel Prize.” Independent.co.uk. “Voices: Our Opinions – and Yours’ Section”, December 6. Accessed March 2, 2009. www.independent.co.uk/voice. N.P.

  • Harvey, David. 2005. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hinchliffe, Arnold P. 1975. Harold Pinter. New York: St. Martin’s.

    Google Scholar 

  • Inan, Dilek. 2000. The City and Landscapes beyond Harold Pinter’s Rooms. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ionesco, Eugène. 1964. Notes and Counter Notes: Writings on the Theatre. New York: Grove.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knowles, Ronald. 1999. “Harold Pinter, Citizen.” In The Pinter Review: Annual Essays 1989. Edited by Francis Gillen and Steven H. Gale. Tampa: University of Tampa Press. 24–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marcus, George E. 2002. The Sentimental Citizen: Emotion in Democratic Politics. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moyers, Bill. 2007. “Speech at the National Conference for Media Reform.” Freepress.net. Accessed January 18, 2008. http://www.freepress.net/news/20357. N.P. Webpage inactive.

  • Nadernia, Vafa, Ruzy Suliza Hashim and Noraini Mohd Yusof. 2012. “Harold Pinter: The Horizon of Human Rights Charter.” English Language and Literature Studies 2, no. 2(June): 2–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Osborn, R. 1959. Humanism and Moral Theory: A Psychological and Social Inquiry. London: George Allen and Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, Louise and Marianne W. Jørgensen. 2002. Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method. London: Sage.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rancière, Jacques. 2010. Dissensus: On Politics and Aesthetics. London: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saïd, Edward W. 2004. Humanism and Democratic Criticism. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • ‘Shame, n.’ 2017. OED. Cardiff University Database. Accessed January 6, 2016. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/177406?rskey=arfmEW&result=1#eid. N.P.

  • Wacquant, Loïc. 2005. “Symbolic Power in the Rule of the ‘State Nobility’.” In Pierre Bourdieu and Democratic Politics: The Mystery of Ministry. Edited by Loïc Wacquant. Cambridge: Polity. 133–150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zarhy-Levo, Yael. 2001. “Pinter and the Critics.” In The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter. Edited by Peter Raby. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 212–229.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Pinter, Harold. 2009a. “A Pinter Drama in Stoke Newington.” In Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008. 3rd ed. London: Faber and Faber. 233.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinter, Harold. 2009c. “An Open Letter to the Prime Minister.” In Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008. 3rd ed. London: Faber and Faber. 256–257.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinter, Harold. 2009p. “Oh, Superman.” In Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008. 3rd ed. London: Faber and Faber. 210–220.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinter, Harold. 2009x. “University of Florence Speech.” In Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008. 3rd ed. London: Faber and Faber. 258–260.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinter, Harold. 2009y. “University of Turin Speech.” In Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008. 3rd ed. London: Faber and Faber. 261–263.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parr, Adrian. 2008. Deleuze and Memorial Culture: Desire, Singular Memory and the Politics of Trauma. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deleuze, Gilles and Claire Parnet. 2002. Dialogues II: Gilles Deleuze and Claire Parnet. 2nd ed. Translated by Hugh Tomlinson and Barbara Habberjam. London: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perrin, Andrew J. 2006. Citizen Speak: The Democratic Imagination in American Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinter, Harold. 1984. Letter in response to anonymous telex. February 13. British Library, Modern Manuscripts Collection, Pinter Archive, Modern Manuscripts Collection. Political Correspondence Box Add MS 88880/6/54. Div. labelled ‘Misc.’ 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinter, Harold. 2009b. ‘American Football (A Reflection Upon the Gulf War).’ In Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008. 3rd ed. London: Faber and Faber.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom

    Basil Chiasson

Authors
  1. Basil Chiasson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Chiasson, B. (2017). A ‘Citizen of the World’: Aestheticizing Politics. In: The Late Harold Pinter. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50816-4_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation