핀터의 『핫 하우스』 - 연극공간의 정치성 읽기

Abstract

This paper analyses characters and a stage as power effects, representing the various ways to provoke dreadful or comedic scenes in The Hothouse. It is a unique political play that rouses our suspicions against the system of public powers. Set in a government-run mental institution, this play also suggests violence of a hierarchical society by showing Roote, a general manager, Gibbs and Miss Cutts, middle managers. Their brutality to Lamb, a junior staff, is practiced openly in a double room separated into each section by interviewing him to control an electronic shock. Although senior managers maintain public order and try to use the underclass in this institution, Roote and Gibbs are under control of Lobb, a representative of government, i.e., the staff are considered as rulers and victims of bureaucracy. Meanwhile, some comedic elements from incongruity or tautology which is a blistering giggle popped up from the reverse of public forces reproduce the other side of this dominant place. In light of Foucault’s theory, spaces are fundamentally associated with political rationality that is on the different arguments for what he considered ‘governmentality’ since the 19th century. In conclusion, this study is aim to examine politics of dramatic spaces filled with power-relations not just ruling each other but actualizing our ‘political intelligence’ in a community or the self.