Procedural Absurdity and Epistemic Obedience: Disciplinary Power in Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter (Published)
This paper explores the role of absurdity in Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter (1960) not only as a stylistic register, but as a mechanism for institutional control. The study intends to follow how instructions are maintained even if reasons or feasibility are denied, which is called the procedural absurdity, thus leading to a new consideration of Ben’s role of epistemic obedience, compliance based on habit rather than understanding. The research uses a qualitative, textual method, based on the close reading, Esslin’s (2001) theory of the absurd and Foucauldian (1995) theory, and applied to the exchanges of the newspapers, the ketlle dispute, the food orders, the speaking tube, pauses, and the final instruction. The analysis shows that uncertainty subjugates Ben, turning him into a relay that reproduces commands to Gus. The play acknowledges the procedural nature of obedience, and the political power of turning incomprehension into institutional measures of discipline.
Keywords: Disciplinary power, Epistemic Obedience, Institutional Authorit, Procedural Absurdity, The Dumb Waiter