Award Date
1-1-2001
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
English
First Committee Member
Christopher C. Hudgins
Number of Pages
329
Abstract
The mentor-student relationship is a recurring motif in the work of playwright David Mamet. Mamet's portrayal of this relationship demonstrates a conception of human interaction in ways that closely parallel Jurgen Habermas's theory of "communicative action." Habermas posits his theory as a decentered method of examining human subjects' attempts to establish intersubjective claims of validity with other subjects through the media of communication and argumentation. Within this concept, Habermas defines the "Ideal Speech Situation" (ISS), or rational discourse free of any relations of domination aimed at creating an intersubjective recognition of validity between two speaking subjects; Mamet's own conception of community parallel's Habermas's ideal. The playwright's characters disrupt possibilities for ideal communication in large part through the invocation of the role of mentor, a position understood as one of superiority within the lifeworld of Mamet's characters; Mamet's social context also reflects Paulo Freire's "banking concept of education"; Freire's theory provides a versatile heuristic in which to frame these "educational" relationships for Habermasian analysis. The following plays serve as primary material for this dissertation: Sexual Perversity in Chicago, American Buffalo, A Life in the Theatre, Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed-the-Plow, Oleanna, and The Cryptogram. In addition, secondary materials such as Mamet's minor plays, screenplays, fiction writing and essays serve to contextualize the major works and illustrate the broad scope of this motif.
Keywords
Action; Communicative; Communicative Action; David; Kill; Major; Mamet; Mamet, David; People; Plays; Pedagogy; Teach; Way
Controlled Subject
American literature; Literature, Modern; Theater; Education--Philosophy
File Format
File Size
7618.56 KB
Degree Grantor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Language
English
Permissions
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Repository Citation
Strasburg, Jeffrey Otto, ""The only way to teach these people is to kill them": Pedagogy as communicative action in the major plays of David Mamet" (2001). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 2479.
http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/dn6x-tkv6
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