1. Dr Jamie Bernthal j.bernthal@mdx.ac.uk
ENG10003 Literary Analysis
No Man’s Land - 2
Memory and character
Dr Jamie Bernthal

2. Thinking about characters
Does the character list tell us anything?
Is it enough to think of ‘round’ v ‘flat’ characters?
‘Part of our interest in characters in fiction and drama has to do with trying to elaborate answers to this question – not only for themselves, but also for us’ (Bennett & Royle, 2016, p. 65)

3. Pinter’s characters(?)
‘My characters tell me so much and no more, with reference to their experience, their aspirations, their motives, their history. Between my lack of biographical data about them and the ambiguity of what they say lies a territory which is not only worthy of exploration, but which it is compulsory to explore’ (Pinter, 1962/2008)

4. Memory & character
‘One of Pinter’s most powerful effects is his ability to introduce other places and times, and other voices, into the dramatic world he has created, and to do this economically, unexpectedly, often poignantly. The most noticeable way, perhaps, is through memory, through the stories characters tell, or imply, or invent.’ (Raby, 2009, p. 59)
Hirst on his album: p. 34, p. 67

5. Echoes
‘Opposites and parallels’ (Billington, 2007, p. 426)
T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’
‘I have known this before. The exit through the door, by way of belly and floor.’
‘I have known this before. Morning. A locked door. A house of silence and strangers.’
‘I have known this before. The door unlocked. The etnrance of a stranger. The offer of alms. The shark in the harbour.’
‘I have known this before. The voice unheard. A listener. The command from an upper floor.’

6. FOSTER walks about the room, stops at the door.
Listen. You know what it’s like when you’re in a room with the light on and then suddenly the light goes out. I’ll show you. It’s like this.
He turns the light out.
BLACKOUT

7. bibliography
Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle, 2016, An Introduction to Literature, Theory and CriticismI, 5th edn, London: Routledge
Michael Billington, 2007, Harold Pinter, London: Faber
T.S. Eliot, 1915, ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’, Poetry (June),accessed online via Poetry Foundation:
Harold Pinter, 1975/1991, No Man’s Land, London: Faber
Harold Pinter, 1962/2008, ‘The Echoing Silence’, The Guardian (31 December), accessed online: pinter-early-essay-writing
Peter Raby (ed.), 2009, The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter, 2nd edn, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press