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Cinematic Transliteration of Political Play in Pinter’s The Trial

  • Journal of Modern English Drama
  • Abbr : JMBARD
  • 2014, 27(2), pp.63-83
  • Publisher : 한국현대영미드라마학회
  • Research Area : Humanities > English Language and Literature > English Literature > Contemporary English Drama

Park Jong-duck 1

1계명대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper considers Pinter’s cinematic techniques in his modifications of the Kafka’s original novel for the purpose of cinematic transliteration of the elements in his political plays through an analysis of Harold Pinter’s screenplay, The Trial. In his comedies of menace, Pinter deals with the theme of dominance and subservience, and while developing the theme, he emphasizes the symbolic aspects of the key concept, “room” and the conflict between its occupant and invader. In his late political plays and this screenplay, Pinter emphasizes individuals being suppressed by surveillance from violent authorities and facing the menace of authority in search of the possibility of a line of flight from the catastrophic situation. In The Trial, Pinter focuses on the main character, Joseph K., who revolts against the violent and absurd law enforced by depraved and obscene authorities. The screenplay presents Joseph K., who is being watched and arrested for an unknown cause, as an individual who finally forms his political realization and takes a determinate action to search for a line of flight. Pinter’s The Trial reflects all his cinematic experiments and co-related concerns of politics and cinema. The screenplay also anticipates his late political plays such as Moonlight, Ashes to Ashes, and Celebration. Thus it can be regarded as an important transitional work toward Pinteresque political plays.

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