Matters of the Heart: The Poetics of Trauma in Harold Pinter's Ashes to Ashes.
Harold Pinter's Ashes to Ashes, comprising an extended dialogue between two protagonists, Rebecca and Devlin, repeatedly returns to a "guide" who steals babies from their mothers at a railway station. This image has led Pinter scholars to interpret the play as a representation of the Shoah and its i...
| Publicado en: | Modern Drama Vol. 63; no. 3; pp. 311 - 330 |
|---|---|
| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
University of Toronto Press
Fall2020
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=146677357&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 146677357 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00267694 MOD jtl: Modern Drama issn: 00267694 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Fall2020 vid: 63 iid: 3 pid: 678 pub: University of Toronto Press artinfo: ui: 146677357 10.3138/md.63.3.1076 ppf: 311 ppct: 19 formats: tig: atl: Matters of the Heart: The Poetics of Trauma in Harold Pinter's Ashes to Ashes. aug: au: Roberts, Matthew su: Pinter, Harold, 1930-2008 Ashes to Ashes (Theatrical production) Protagonists (Persons) Protestantism Psychoanalysis sug: subj: Pinter, Harold, 1930-2008 Ashes to Ashes (Theatrical production) Protagonists (Persons) Protestantism Psychoanalysis keyword: affect deconstruction psychoanalysis telepathy ab: Harold Pinter's Ashes to Ashes, comprising an extended dialogue between two protagonists, Rebecca and Devlin, repeatedly returns to a "guide" who steals babies from their mothers at a railway station. This image has led Pinter scholars to interpret the play as a representation of the Shoah and its impact on Pinter's life. However, during the play's conclusion, Rebecca assumes the position of one of the mothers and, while ventriloquizing her, disavows the existence of her child at the very moment when another woman asks her to confirm the infant's whereabouts. Rather than maintaining the customary position that Ashes to Ashes represents a specific historical atrocity, I read the play's engagement with trauma through the figure of this abducted, but ultimately disowned, infant. Specifically, I attend to how the infant's disappearance informs the poetic qualities of Ashes to Ashes as its heartbeat figures prominently throughout the play, resonates in its dialogue, and organizes its rhythmic structure. By examining how these poetic features situate Rebecca's mode of listening as an exemplary ethico-political response to suffering, I propose an alternative to the interpretation of Pinter's use of dramatic speech in terms of referentiality or language games. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2020 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|