Bath-Time and Cruising Time: Temporality, Domesticity, and Risk in Pinter

Abstract

Abstract Bringing several of Pinter's plays into conversation with theories of queer temporality, this article proposes that Pinter subverts conventional distinctions between the safe space and structured time of domestic routine and its supposed opposite, the risky space and messy temporality of queer life. I focus specifically on two activities associated with queer temporalities in these plays: cruising and bathing. The essay analyzes how gay male erotic cruising is depicted in The Collection (1961), No Man's Land (1975), and Victoria Station (1982), considering the techniques Pinter uses to place audiences in the subjective position of the cruiser. In addition, it examines the representation of bathing in The Homecoming (1965), Old Times (1971), and Family Voices (1981), arguing that Pinter represents bath-time as a free-floating idyll unmoored from commitments or expectations, but also suggests that it is incompatible with domesticity.