The Transition from Domestic Sphere to International Sphere in Pinter’s Political Play: Ashes to Ashes

Abstract

Abstract Motivated by the absurd tradition in the 1950s, in the following years, Pinter transitioned comedy of menace to the memory plays. With the political drama booming in the 1960s although the playwrights of the period such as John Arden, Arnold Wesker, Edward Bond have written down overtly political plays, Pinter continued to write implicit plays unlike the writers of that time. By the time the political drama was on the decline, with the effect of globalization, Pinter wrote very overtly political plays after the 1980s. As a matter of fact, Pinter revived the New British Theatre with his third period plays such as One for the Road and Mountain Language. Pinter who gained prominence with the latest period plays, has also exceeded the borders of his country; therefore, he referred to the social and political cases he observed in other countries. He addressed several international issues, including the Gulf War, American dominance over other countries, and disempowerment of minority rights. He repudiated the borders pertained at his interviews, even sharply criticised the British politics with courage. Pinter, who was awarded the Nobel Prize, did not hesitate to criticize the policies of England and America with great heart, even in his Nobel speech. Pinter, who handled only British issues in his own country in the early period plays, became the voice of many countries in the latest period plays. Pinter, who never admitted to being a political playwright, was almost always annoyed being tagged, and tried to be the voice of whole world while cutting across all boundaries. This paper discusses Pinter’s domestic sphere in his early phase turns into a universally oppressive space filled with violence, rape, death and surveillance in his late plays. It is seen that the dramatised space in Pinter’s late plays has been widened both literally and figuratively. The image of “room” is superseded by the global cities and foreign countries as the locus of oppression and the centre of political power. His late stage goes beyond the world of the theatre as the paper will reveal that Pinter's political play entitled as Ashes to Ashes cuts across all boundaries.