Radio aesthetics in Pinter’s early drama

This article studies Pinter’s use of media to show that his early drama shifts from a transmedial strategy (different from adaptation), which allows plays to migrate freely between theatre, radio, and television, to an intermedial poetics that exploits the affordances of various media while resisting transposition. Starting out with a terminological excursion and a discussion of Pinter’s earliest works that feature a 'radio aesthetics', the article explores 'The Hothouse'as a play that thematizes radio and audio technologies. 'A Night Out' and 'Night School' are then analyzed as examples of Pinter’s approach to acoustic and visual media, concluding with 'Landscape' and 'Family Voices' as marking the transition to his later work. The aim of this article is to stress the value of archival and intermedial methodologies for a fuller understanding of Pinter’s dramatic practice, and to emphasize the largely overlooked importance of radio within it.

Publication year:2021

Keywords:A1 Journal article

BOF-keylabel:yes

Accessibility:Open