A Postmodernist Reading of Harold Pinter’s “The Homecoming”

As a dramatist, Pinter, more than anyone else in the 20th century, has changed our expectations of the stage language, and has made more tradition treatments of stage, action and language seem ridiculous. He is an enigma to critics. Some consider him an absurdist, others an existentialist and some place him in the group of anti-humanists and the amoral. In this case, Pinter’s drama does not seem irrelevant to postmodern theatre. The power of most of Pinter’s plays originate from the truth of a speaker’s feeling that always lies in the unspoken words or in what has come to be known as “Pinter’s pauses”. His works illustrate the power of language and also its unreliability, what is labeled in postmodernism as “indeterminacy” or “against interpretation”. His uniqueness originates from his ability to create tension between the absurdist tradition with its baffling, purposeless activities and naturalistic use of language which is rendered through believable details. As an example of a postmodern drama The Homecoming seems to display the persistence of the past in the present, indeterminacy, irony, anarchy, happening and silence which are known as the main elements of postmodernism. It is, then, attempted to show that in his depiction of certain aspects of family life and relationships that are common to all families in greater or lesser degree, Pinter’s The Homecoming seems to bring into account a consideration of postmodernity according to Derrida’s concept of “deconstruction”, however, Lyotard’s “Fall of Metanarratives” and “Language Game” are of certain significance within the postmodernist approach towards the play. Finally, it is concluded that all these features together have been the real key to the sense of “fragmentation” and “inconsistency” felt among the play’s family members and have completed the postmodernist environment which is evident within the postmodern plays. Key words : Postmodernist Literature; Postmodernist Feminism; Metanarrative; Language Game; Parody; Difference; Delogocentrism; Indeterminacy Resume: En tant qu’un dramatiste, Pinter, plus que tous les autres dramatistes dans le 20eme ciecle, a change nos attentes concernant le langage de la scene, et a fait des reformes sur la scene, l’action et le langage qui semblent ridicules. Il est une enigme pour les critiques. Certains le considerent comme un absurde, d’autres un existentialiste et certains le placent dans le groupe des anti-humanistes et des amoraux. Dans ce cas, le drame de Pinter semble avoir des rapport avec le theatre post-moderne. La puissance de la plupart des pieces de Pinter vient de la verite du sentiment d’un orateur qui se trouve toujours dans les non-dits ou dans ce qui est connu sous le nom des “pauses de Pinter”. Ses oeuvres illustrent la puissance du langage et son manque de fiabilite, ce qui est marque dans le postmodernisme comme “indetermination” ou “contre l’interpretation”. Son caractere unique provient de sa capacite a creer des tensions entre la tradition absurde et ses chicanes, des activites sans but et l’utilisation naturaliste du langage a travers des details credibles. En tant qu’un exemple du drame postmoderne, Le retour semble afficher la persistance du passe dans le present, l’indetermination, l’ironie, l’anarchie, happening et le silence qui sont connus comme les principaux elements du postmodernisme. Il est, ensuite, tente de montrer que dans sa description de certains aspects de la vie familiale et les relations qui sont communes a toutes les familles plus ou moins, Le retour de Pinter semble prendre en consideration un element de la postmodernite selon le concept de Derrida de la “deconstruction”, cependant, “la chute des metarecits” et “langue du jeu” de Lyotard sont d’une certaine importance dans l’approche postmoderne vis-a-vis de la piece. Enfin, il est conclu que toutes ces caracteristiques ont ete la veritable cle pour le sentiment de la “fragmentation” et de “l’incoherence” ressenties par les membres de la famille dans la piece et qui ont complete l’environnement postmoderniste qui se manifeste au sein des pieces postmodernes. Mots-cles: Litterature Postmoderne ; Feminisme Postmoderne ; Metarecit ; Jeu De Langage ; Parodie ; Difference ; Delogocentrisme ; Indetermination

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.