Objectification, Denial, and Transformation: A Feminist Approach to Harold Pinter's One for the Road

Abstract

Abstract Harold Pinter's first overtly political play, One for the Road, premiered in 1984, as a theatrical response to the brutal state-run torture of political prisoners in Turkey during the Cold War period. Unlike previous studies that argue Pinter glorifies misogyny in this play, this article illustrates how Pinter condemns the misogynistic nature of torture. He exposes the sexist physical and verbal violence inherent in political torture. This examination of female torture uses Elaine Scarry's The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World to show how Pinter depicts these human rights abuses as a form of male supremacy. Reading Pinter through Scarry demonstrates how this play portrays torture, including interrogation, as a process whereby pain is objectified, denied, and then transformed into power. This process acutely denounces not just torture, but how torture is a product of patriarchy therefore positioning One for the Road as a feminist play.