Renunciation of language in Harold Pinter’s “The Homecoming,” “The Caretaker” and “The Dumb Waiter: a Lacanian analysis

Download

index.pdf

Date

2006

Author

Aydın, Türkan

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

316
views

302
downloads

Based on Harold Pinter's three plays “The Homecoming,” “The Caretaker” and “The Dumb Waiter,” the aim of this study is to explore the idea that an individual cannot be a speaking member of the Symbolic Order, thus of the society unless s/he obeys the prohibitions/commands of language, a concept on which both Pinter and Lacan put great emphasis in their own vision. For Pinter human beings lead a life controlled by some unknown powers and build a disastrous subjective world devoid of linguistic competence. As for Lacan, language imprisons, castrates and pushes the subject into a claustrophobic world, which is portrayed strikingly by Pinter. The result is equally impressive; for Lacan: neurosis or psychosis, oscillating between the Orders/Registers of the Symbolic, Imaginary and Real, not possessing an assigned role in the community, and for Pinter: an absurd world where there is no meaning but a sense of loss. Lacan’s explanation for the reasons of this absurd world focuses on two significant factors : the m(O)ther, who meets the basic needs in the Imaginary Order/stage of infancy and who introduces the Father to the child, and the Father, who will enable the child to obey the prohibitions of language, and thus to secure the child’s adulthood. Throughout the study the points which will be highlighted are as follows: the characteristics of the absurd drama, the place of Harold Pinter in the contemporary theatre and the justification of a Lacanian reading, subjectivity’s constitution.

Subject Keywords

Modern Europeam Languages, General Works.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12607481/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/16410

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

The theory of passions in cartesian philosophy Aksoy, Işıl; Turan, Şeref Halil; Department of Philosophy (2006) The aim of this thesis is to investigate the passions in Cartesian philosophy. It analyses the nature, characteristics and the causes of passions as discussed by Descartes in his correspondence with Princess Elizabeth and his last book The Passions of the Soul (Les passions de l’âme). This thesis purports to explain Descartes’ ethical view by examining the physical mechanism of the passions and their relation to the soul. The reason, will and their essential roles in Cartesian ethics are discussed.
The memory of time : virtuality in Deleuze’s philosophy İsmet, Burçak; Ceylan, Yasin; Department of Philosophy (2007) The main objective of this master’s thesis is to examine the concept of difference according to French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Henri Bergson. In order to explicate this crucial concept and its emphasis in these thinkers’ philosophies, this dissertation is focused on the notion of time and memory. Through the thesis, first Deleuze’s critical attitude towards representational and dialectical approachs for difference is elucidated. After the comprehensive examination for the meaning of difference accor...
Predication in Aristotle's Categories: A Response to Plato's Theory of Forms Duran, Zeynep; Güremen, Refik; Department of Philosophy (2021-10-4) This study aims to provide a textual evidence to the idea of reading the Categories of Aristotle as a criticism of the Platonic Theory of Forms, by means of Metaphysics, A, 9, 990b22-991a8 and Alexander’s commentary on it (88,5-95,2). According to the main examples of this reading from the contemporary literature, the predication theory of the Categories, conceiving being as “being something” and holding the idea that “being is said in many ways,” denies the Platonic predication theory that is expounded by ...
The Importance of the Meno on the transition from the early to the middle Platonic dialogues Seferoğlu, Tonguç; Bağçe, Samet; Department of Philosophy (2012) The purpose of the present study is to signify the explanatory value of the Meno on the coherence as well as the disparateness of the Plato’s early and middle dialogues. Indeed, the Meno exposes the transition on the content and form of these dialogues. The first part of the dialogue resembles the Socrates’ way of investigation, the so-called Elenchus, whereas Plato presents his own philosophical project in the second part of the dialogue. Three fundamental elements of Plato’s middle dialogues explicitly ar...
The analysis of alienation [Entfremdung] in being time from a Marxist perspective Keskin, Eda; İnam, Ahmet; Department of Philosophy (2010) In this thesis, the problem of human being’s alienation from its own Self, society, species-being, objects (products) and labour, which occurs in capitalist modernity through the formation of mass cultures, is analyzed in the conceptual context of Being and Time. In this respect, it is discussed that Heideggerian philosophy is not at odds with Marxism in contrast to Theodor W. Adorno’s arguments in The Jargon of Authenticity. Additionally, the claim of this study is that Heidegger’s ontologico-existential p...

Citation Formats

T. Aydın, “Renunciation of language in Harold Pinter’s “The Homecoming,” “The Caretaker” and “The Dumb Waiter: a Lacanian analysis,” M.A. - Master of Arts, Middle East Technical University, 2006.