Harold Pinter and the Art of Subtext ENG10003 Literary Analysis No Man’s Land - 1 Harold Pinter and the Art of Subtext Dr Jamie Bernthal j.bernthal@mdx.ac.uk

Harold Pinter (1930-2008) Born in Hackney Studied to be an actor at RADA Early play, The Birthday Party (1958) received terrible reviews Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005 What did he write? Comedies of Menace Memory Plays Political Plays Pinter playing Hirst (1993)

What happens in No Man’s land ? Do we even know what’s happening? Do we know what has happened? Who is who? How are we meant to react? 'He mapped out his own country with its own distinctive topography - a place haunted by the shifting ambivalence of memory, flecked by uncertainty, reeking of sex and echoing with strange, mordant laughter. It was, in short, Pinterland' (Billington, 2008) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h20gPwTJq8

Pinteresque pauses 'I think that we communicate only too well, in our silence, in what is unsaid, and that what takes place is a continual evasion, desperate rearguard attempts to keep ourselves to ourselves. Communication is too alarming. To enter into someone else's life is too frightening. To disclose to others the poverty within us is too fearsome a possibility.' (Pinter, 1962/2008)

‘tape-recorder dialogue’? 'And so I said to Mr Gardener, why, I said, sightseeing is all very well, and I do like to do a place thoroughly. But, after all, I said, we’ve done England pretty well and all I want now is to get to some quiet spot by the seaside and just relax. That’s what I said, wasn’t it, Odell? Just relax. I feel I must relax, I said. That’s so, isn’t it, Odell?' Mr Gardener, from behind his hat, murmured: 'Yes, darling.' Mrs Gardener pursued the theme. 'And so, when I mentioned it to Mr Kelso, at Cook’s—He’s arranged all our itinerary for us and been most helpful in every way. I don’t really know what we’d have done without him!—well, as I say, when I mentioned it to him, Mr Kelso said that we couldn’t do better than come here. A most picturesque spot, he said, quite out of the world, and at the same time very comfortable and most exclusive in every way […] Being a small place we all talk to each other and everybody knows everybody. If there is a fault about the British it is that they’re inclined to be a bit standoffish until they’ve known you a couple of years. […]' Agatha Christie, 1941, Evil Under the Sun, pp. 11-12

William Shakespeare, 1600/2005, Hamlet, Act 1, scene 2, lines 69-86 Gertrude: Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not for ever with thy vailed lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust: Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity. Hamlet: Ay, madam, it is common. Gertrude: If it be, Why seems it so particular with thee? Hamlet: Seems, madam! nay it is; I know not 'seems.' 'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, Nor customary suits of solemn black, Nor windy suspiration of forced breath, No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage, Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief, That can denote me truly: these indeed seem, For they are actions that a man might play: But I have that within which passeth show; These but the trappings and the suits of woe. William Shakespeare, 1600/2005, Hamlet, Act 1, scene 2, lines 69-86

‘TAPE-RECORDER DIALOGUE’? (cont.) No Man’s Land, Act 1, pp. 24-6. Does it advance our understanding of character? Does it help us ‘set’ the play? Non-literal meanings

Subtext 1 Briggs: You collect the beermugs from the tables in a pub in Chalk Farm. - What does he mean? Spooner: The landlord’s a friend of mine. When he’s shorthanded, I give him a helping hand. Briggs: Who says the landlord’s a friend of yours?

Subtext 2 Subtext in everyday life New and shared knowledge in interpretation ‘There are two silences. One when no word is spoken. The other when perhaps a torrent of language is being employed. The speech we hear is an indication of that which we don't hear. […] One way of looking at speech is to say that it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness.’ (Pinter, 1962/2008)

bibliography Michael Billington, 2008, Obituary: Harold Pinter, The Guardian (28 December), accessed online: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2008/dec/27/harold- pinter-obituary-playwright-politics Agatha Christie, 1941, Evil Under the Sun, London: Collins Harold Pinter, 1975/1991, No Man’s Land, London: Faber Harold Pinter, 1962/2008, ‘The Echoing Silence’, The Guardian (31 December), accessed online: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2008/dec/31/harold- pinter-early-essay-writing William Shakespeare, 1600/2005, Hamlet, London: Penguin