| Popis: |
Most of Mamet's critics focus their study on Mamet's use of language, his treatment of human relations and the corrupted American business values. Capitalism, the central theme in Mamet's plays, has not yet attracted adequate critical attention. Therefore, the present study proposes to use the Marxist concept of reification to examine the role of capitalism in Mamet's dramatic world. My main argument posits that capitalism is conceived by Mamet as an inhuman power that reifies human consciousness and behavior in American society. The first chapter starts with an overview of the development of reification in Western Marxism, followed by a discussion of Mamet's treatment of capitalism. Chapter II deals with the reification of human identity in capitalist workplaces. This chapter intends to examine the conditions of human beings in the bureaucratic-capitalist system in Lakeboat and Glengarry Glen Ross. Chapter III is concerned with the unfulfillment of sex and love in Sexual Perversity in Chicago. In this section, I will use capitalist work/play ideology to explain the reification of sexual relationships in urban environment. Chapter IV concentrates on the phenomena of commodity fetishism in American Buffalo. Throughout the discussion, the thesis will show that, in the eyes of Mamet, capitalism has turned contemporary America to a spiritual wasteland, of which the phenomena of reification is the main characteristic. |
