Acknowledgements 摘要 Abstract Introduction 0.1 Biographical notes on Harold Pinter 0.2 Understanding Pinter's works 0.3 Literature review of researches on Pinter's plays 0.3.1 Pinter's status in the literary world 0.3.2 Pinter as an Absurdist 0.3.3 Pinter's language 0.3.4 Freudian interpretation 0.3.5 Gender interpretation 0.3.6 Pinter's politics 0.4 The argument of the dissertation Chapter One Pinter's political concerns in his Comedy of Menace 1.1 The general conditions after WWII 1.2 The Theatre of the Absurd 1.3 Pinter's Comedy of Menace 1.4 The significance of the Comedy of Menace Chapter Two Pinter's small p politics: Struggle for Power 2.1 Micro-power in Pinter's early plays 2.1.1 Power as relationship 2.1.2 Power as a network 2.1.3 Power as subjectless and decentered and omnipresent 2.1.4 Power related to knowledge and truth 2.2 Influences on Pinter's conception of Struggle for Power 2.3 Language and Power Chapter Three Pinter's capital P Politics 3.1 Pinter's political complex since his early age 3.2 Pinter and the British theatre in the 1980s and 1990s 3.3 Politics in Pinter's late plays 3.3.1 Politics in One for the Road 3.3.2 Politics in Mountain, Language 3.3.3 Politics in Party Time 3,3.4 Politics in The New World Order(1991) 3.3.5 Politics in Ashes to Ashes (1996) 3.4 Pinter's exploration of politics 3.5 Language and politics Conclusion Bibliography