Harold Pinter, Fascism, and Outrage: Aesthetic and Moral Implications

This book locates Harold Pinter's controversial anti-fascism, overtly political plays not as revolutionary works designed to mobilize the masses, but as cries of moral outrage against the authoritarian forces of oppression. Displaying on stage the plight of political prisoners facing illegal detainment, brutal interrogation, and torture, Pinter employs an aggressive, graphic style seeking to shock spectators out of their apathy and denial, and encourage awareness of such documented realities of fascist rule. Russell argues that Pinter's political plays are not propagandistic screeds, but rather reflect a level of quasi-journalistic facticity about the global rise of fascism.