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The Political Verse: A Poetics of Force

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The Late Harold Pinter

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Abstract

This chapter examines several of the political poems Pinter wrote between 1991 and 2006. The analysis is guided by the fact that Pinter’s political verse has been dismissed, seen as a secondary impulse, and/or regarded in terms of thematic convergence and divergence with, the dramas and Pinter’s political convictions. The poems are examined for their express appeal to the body and capacity to affect, and the implications this has for political subjectivity. Diverse contextualization is also offered, with reference to the Great War poets and Pinter’s circulation of the poetry in mainstream media forums. The chapter enriches the book’s ongoing framing of politics as aesthetics and offers new perspectives from which to consider Pinter’s concern over the boundaries between and shared territories of Pinter as artist and as citizen.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Susan Hollis Merritt shrewdly proposed these specific voices as a possible reading. Her remarks are unpublished and emerged during a question-and-answer session for the Pinter Society panel at the Modern Language Association annual convention, in Chicago, on 29 December 2007.

  2. 2.

    The following sources are a few examples: ‘Harold Pinter “American Football – A Reflection on the Gulf War”,’ Stupid and Contagious blog; David Aaronovitch’s ‘Saddam has the last word,’ in the Guardian, 27 July 2004; Pat Holt’s ‘American Football’ post and discussion on the Holt Uncensored blog (2006), Daniel Finkelstein’s ‘Warning: what you are about to read is f****** poetic,’ in The Times, 9 March 2005; Adam Newey’s ‘A howl of disapproval,’ in the New Statesman, ‘Culture’ section, 14 July 2003; and Rex Murphy’s ‘The igNobel versifications of Harold Pinter,’ in the Globe and Mail, ‘Comment’ section, A29, 15 October 2005. Also, for a critique of ‘American Football’ see Tim Kendall, Modern English War Poetry, p. 242 and p. 661 Pinter’s war poetry in general (Oxford: 2006).

  3. 3.

    In 1988, Pinter remarked to Mel Gussow: ‘I understand your interest in me as a playwright. But I’m more interested in myself as a citizen.’ (Pinter quoted in Gussow 1994, 71)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom

    Basil Chiasson

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Chiasson, B. (2017). The Political Verse: A Poetics of Force. In: The Late Harold Pinter. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50816-4_4

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