Entertainment
Harold Pinter
BBC Learning English – Entertainment
Harold Pinter
Anna: Hello, I'm Anna Jones, and this is Entertainment. In the programme today we
hear about a famous British playwright – someone who writes plays - who was
recently awarded this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature. The Swedish Academy
in Stockholm described him as a leading representative of drama since the end
of the Second World War in 1945. He is also known for expressing his political
views against the war in Iraq. Who is he?
Horace Enghadl
The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2005 is awarded to the English writer Harold Pinter who in
his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s
closed rules.
Anna: Well, the Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to – has been given to -
the British playwright, Harold Pinter. The announcement was made in
Stockholm by a member of the Swedish Academy. The language that is used to
describe Harold Pinter’s plays is very poetic and is quite complicated. We hear
that he “uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle.” Prattle is a very
informal word meaning to talk a lot about something without saying anything
very important. And a precipice is the edge of a cliff and is a dangerous place to
be – if you fall over a precipice then you’ll hurt or kill yourself. Through his
writing Pinter “uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle,” he reveals the
fact that everyday conversations which may appear to be unimportant “prattle”
can, in fact, be much more sinister- much more harmful. Pinter forces the
audience – he makes his audience enter a world where oppression – cruel and
unfair treatment of people – is present. Through his work as a playwright he
reveals how people can be cruel to each other in everyday conversations. Let’s
now hear Harold Pinter talking about his life as a playwright. He said this about
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10 years ago after being awarded a British prize for his work. What are the
three words he uses to describe his working life?
Harold Pinter
Quite simply, my working life has been one of relish, challenge, excitement. Those words are
almost, perhaps, truisms, but in fact they are true. Whether it be a poem, a play or a screenplay,
if the relish, challenge and excitement in the language and through that language, to character,
isn’t there, then nothing’s there and nothing can exist.
Anna: Well the three words he uses are: relish, challenge and excitement. If you
“relish” something then you really enjoy it, if something is a “challenge” it’s new
and difficult and if you feel excitement about something then you feel very
happy and look forward to it. Pinter describes these words as “truisms” – they
are so clearly true and he has used them so often in the past to describe his
working life, that they are almost boring. However he says that these words are
in fact a true description of his working life. He goes even further and suggests
that any poem, play or film needs to contain these three elements of relish,
challenge and excitement to bring the characters alive. He says that if these
elements are not in the language, then “nothing is there.”
Now let’s hear from John Sutherland – professor of English at University
College in London. Does he think that the decision to award Harold Pinter the
Nobel Prize for Literature was a surprise?
John Sutherland
It’s a very subtle choice I think, in that clearly Pinter is political, he’s at the moment in a
virulently anti-American phase of his career and a lot of his poetry recently has been verging
on the slanderous against America and, together with the peace prize to El Baradei, one
suspects there is a tendency here. But it is not the political choice people were talking about, it
is not some bland choice. Somehow it is rather courageous.
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Anna: Professor John Sutherland says that the decision to award the Nobel Prize for
Literature to Harold Pinter was a “subtle” one – meaning that it was not an
automatic or obvious choice – it was a bit of a surprise. He also describes the
decision as “courageous” a brave decision. He says that Harold Pinter is a
political writer and a lot of his work has been “virulently anti-American.” – it
has been very strongly against America. His work has been so anti- American
that it has been verging on – almost slanderous. If something is “slanderous”
someone says something that is untrue and intended to damage someone’s
reputation. John Sutherland says that the decision to give the literature prize to
a political writer like Pinter is similar to the decision to give this year’s Nobel
Peace Prize to Mohamed el Baradei - the head of the United Nations Atomic
Energy Agency. Both decisions were political decisions but not necessarily the
ones that were expected. The decision to give the literature prize to Pinter was
not bland – it was not boring – it was courageous.
That’s all for now. Goodbye.
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