The Utopia Of Communication

David Mamet is one of the outstanding playwrights in contemporary America,famous for his “Mametesque” style.Mamet is good at using seemingly simple dialogue to portray the constantly changing interpersonal relationships that signified the alienation of communication.Oleanna is one of Mamet’s most controversial works,which focuses on the development of the teacher-student relationship from cooperation to confrontation.The two protagonists take advantage of their identities to pursue their “legitimate” interests,but both fail in the end.Previous studies on Oleanna focused on single power,such as the discursive or economic power,so as to criticize the protagonists.Few studies mentioned the power system hidden behind the power struggle between the two protagonists.Michel Foucault studies power from a new perspective.He asserts that power is changeable,and men are not the subject of power but the tools of power operation.In addition,he also claims that power forms knowledge and produces discourse,and the discourse of knowledge can either strengthen or weaken power.A large number of speeches not only consolidate power but also expose it,thus hindering the implementation of power.On the contrary,silence belies the existence of power.Based on the power theory of Michel Foucault,this dissertation analyzes the changing identities of the protagonists of Oleanna.The power relations in this play are reversed by the identity conversion of protagonists-from teacher-student to male and female,to the representatives of their groups.By analyzing,this thesis points out that human identity keeps changing in interpersonal communication;thus,the power relation between people is a mutual constraint.It also reveals the spiritual dilemma in the context of post-modernism.This thesis tries to demonstrate that in Oleanna,the cognitive difference hindered the communication between the two protagonists,and when their communication is involved with power,the one with power will always unconsciously use the power to suppress the other,which makes them unable to understand each other’s thoughts.In such circumstances,equal communication and a fundamental understanding of each other are Utopian dreams.The body part of this thesis includes three chapters: the first chapter expounds on the unequal teacher-student relationship between John and Carol from the perspective of John’s instructing methods,control of Carol’s thoughts,and ignorance of her feeling.The second chapter analyzes that when John and Carol communicate as man and woman,their relationship is full of patriarchal oppression.The oppression can be found in John’s unconscious misogynistic tendency,his instinct to control the power space,and his excessive superiority.The third chapter explicates the tragic ending of John and Carol when they work as the representatives of the groups behind them.The two groups first provoke their individual relationship,then control their independent personality,and in this process,John and Carol gradually become puppets of the groups,which makes their communication inevitably ineffective.Therefore,the conclusion can be drawn at the ending part of this thesis:equal and effective communication can only be achieved when people understand the psychological and physical differences.