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A Study of Alienation in David Mamet’s Plays 大卫·马梅特戏剧作品中的异化现象研究], Doctoral dissertation, English Language and Literature, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China 2017 [application of Fromm's theories to art].

  • 美国著名剧作家大卫·马梅特①(David Mame, 1947-)曾多次获得美国和英国戏剧界大奖, 包括美国普利策奖、奥比奖、英国西城剧院奖等众多荣誉, 是当代美国最高产也是最受欢迎的剧作家之一。马梅特戏剧作品的人物设置、语言特色及其社会关怀博得众多学者的好评。他自早期戏剧作品如《湖舟》、《鸭子变奏曲》、《芝加哥的性堕落》等面世后就开始受到学界关注, 目前已有相当数量的研究成果。中国的马梅特研究虽起步较晚, 但由于马梅特的戏剧成就和国内学者的热情, 现已经逐渐成为美国戏剧研究的热点之一。国内对马梅特研究的视角主要有伦理学研究、女性主义批评、权利话语分析、文体学研究等, 但基本都是以单篇论文呈现, 未能展现马梅特戏剧的整体面貌。此外, 囿于研究视角比较集中, 国内的马梅特研究视野不够开阔。本论文对国内外马梅特研究现状进行比较系统的梳理后, 尝试以西方心理分析领域的马克思主义代表人物埃里希·弗洛姆的异化理论分析马梅特的《美国野牛》、《拜金一族》等剧作, 揭示剧中人物矛盾纠葛产生的深层原因。论文绪论部由四节构成。该部分包含对研究对象、研究现状、异化理论及研究方法和创新点的介绍和梳理。由于马梅特的作品较多, 可以切入研究的视角也纷繁复杂, 必须对其作品及现有研究成果进行合理分类, 才能发现已有成果的局限并为自己的研究找到契合点。其次, 绪论部分也对异化理论进行了梳理。多位哲人和学者从哲学的角度运用过异化概念, 但定义各不相同, 因此需要对论文中使用的异化理论予以界定。最后, 论文归纳了撰写过程中使用的研究方法、论文的创新点及后期研究的方向。除绪论外, 论文主体部分由三章构成, 分别研究商业活动、日常关系及情感活动中的异化现象。商品经济大潮对当今社会产生的冲击最强烈, 影响也最明显;商业活动又是商品经济中最常见、最普遍的活动, 因此论文主体部分首先讨论了商业活动中异化现象的表现及其影响。论文第一章题目是>《拜金一族》与《燃水引擎》中商业活动异化研究<。本章分别以马梅特的普利策戏剧奖获奖作品《拜金一族》及另外一部涉及商业犯罪的作品《燃水引擎》为研究目标, 分析两部作品中的物欲崇拜异化对社会的正常运转所造成的负面影响。《拜金一族》围绕推销员、主管威廉姆森的表现及公司老板的角色展开研究。论文通过分析上述角色的言行, 发现推销员的卑劣行径源于异化, 而推销员的异化则根源于公司的竞争制度和管理方式。《燃水引擎》将研究重点聚焦于商人劳伦斯·奥伯曼的言行, 通过将其言语与实际行为进行对比, 揭示这位道貌岸然的商人在物欲崇拜的驱使下如何与他人沆瀣一气追逐偏颇目标的。论文揭示了两部戏剧中商业活动缘何偏离正常轨道及商业活动中异化现象产生的原因, 认为两部戏剧都涉及因商业活动导致的犯罪问题, 其诱因表面上要归结为伦理缺失、道德失衡, 然而背后的原因却是人的异化观念导致了物欲崇拜现象。本章第四节从语言技巧出发探讨马梅特如何通过人物语言表现商业活动领域的异化现象。人际关系是链接人与人关系的重要纽带, 它决定着人际互动的展开方式并会从根本上影响社会的运转, 在社会生活中具有举足轻重的地位。马梅特在戏剧作品也非常关注异化对人际关系带来的影响, 因此论文在第二章研究了日常交往中的异化现象。本章研究异化如何影响日常交往, 研究对象是马梅特的戏剧作品《美国野牛》与《奥利安娜》。正常社会氛围中诸如相互照顾、帮助、关心都是较为常见的人际互动方式, 而>异化<会瓦解上述良性互动方式并导致社会中冷漠、仇恨等消极因素不断滋生蔓延。《美国野牛》中蒂奇说服店主更换合作伙伴、策划大部分作案细节、持续不断地中伤他人, 推动着戏剧情节的发展, 因此他的言行是研究的重点。论文运用社会表演学理论透视蒂奇言语与行为的矛盾之处, 揭示他行为表现出的深刻的异化特征。《奥利安娜》中卡罗尔经历了由>请求者<到>霸凌者<的转变, 她在要求没有得到满足的情况下执意提出控告并意图毁掉教授拥有的一切。论文分析了卡罗尔在>弱势<及>强势<身份时迥然不同的表演, 发掘其言行中异化特征。论文通过对两部戏剧的研究, 剖析了异化对人际关系的影响并揭示了人际关系异化形成的根源。本章的第四节从两部戏剧的情境入手, 以具体文本为出发点, 分析了马梅特如何巧妙地选择情境表现异化对日常生活产生巨大影响的。爱情是人类情感的升华, 是人类生活不可或缺的一部分, 同时也是文学研究的重要方面。巧合的是, 马梅特也有多部作品与爱情异化相关。因此, 论文主体的第三章研究感情生活中的异化现象。本章对《树林》与《波士顿婚姻》展开分析, 通过剧中人物的言行透视异化对情感生活的巨大影响。《树林》在上演后引起多家媒体的追捧和评论, 关注的焦点多集中于戏剧语言、情节等方面;《波士顿婚姻》引发的关注多集中在同性婚姻、爱情忠诚等方面。但在作者看来, 这两部戏剧反映的是资本主义工业化生产方式塑造的异化性格在爱情中的具体体现。《树林》中尼克对情人如丝的兴趣漠不关心, 他在爱情中只会索取, 却逃避应该承担的义务并仅仅追求即时的性欲。论文以表演学理论展现了>爱无能<在戏剧中如何体现及其产生的负面影响;《波士顿婚姻》中安娜以帮助同性恋人克莱尔的名义同已婚男性开始了新恋情。论文通过表演学理论分析其言行, 阐明她这一做法的真正动机是满足虚荣心。此外, 论文还就安娜身上所体现的金钱崇拜、不受挫原则等几个特征进行分析, 指出安娜的行为是不切实际的。论文认为, 异化改变了人的爱情观并损害了感情生活的基础。本章的最后一节阐述马梅特在戏剧中如何利用>陌生化<效果强化异化对爱情生活的负面影响。论文结论部分总结了主体部分的研究内容, 认为商业活动、日常关系及情感生活中的异化现象在马梅特的戏剧中普遍存在, 体现了马梅特对社会运行中异化、疏离现象的焦虑。论文借助相关戏剧理论分析了六部戏剧中形态各异的异化现象, 指出了异化对社会产生影响的具体方式, 揭示了异化产生的根源以及马梅特是如何通过多种艺术手法表现异化现象的。由于异化会对社会生活的各个方面都会产生消极的影响, 阻碍社会良性发展和社会个体间的良性互动, 因而社会所有成员都需要对此予以关注和重视。异化理论不仅可以解读出戏剧人物怪诞言行的深层原因, 而且可以追根溯源挖掘这些现象产生的社会原因。从异化视角解读马梅特的戏剧作品所获得的研究成果也为如何构建和谐发展的社会提供了比较有益的思考.
  • David Mamet (born 1947), a famous American playwright, has won numerous awards in the U. S. and the U. K. , including the Pulitzer Prize, the Obie Award, the British Society of West End Theatres Awards, and so on, and is widely acclaimed as one of the most prolific and most popular playwrights. The construction of his characters, the language features and humanistic concern in the drama have won the praise of many scholars and aroused the interest of academic circles from many countries ever since the publication of his early dramatic works such as >Lakeboat<, >The Duck Variation<, and >Sexual Perversity in Chicago< The last quarter of the 20th century witnessed his quick rise from an obscure playwright into a famous master. Although the study of Mamet began later in China than in America, it has evolved into one of the most heated research objects due to Mamet’s achievements and scholars’ enthusiasm. Up until now, Mamet’s plays have been studied from the perspectives of ethics studies, feminist criticism, discourse analysis, stylistics studies and so on. Since most of the research works are presented in the form of journal articles, they cannot reflect the overall glory of Mamet’s drama. In addition, the research perspectives are relatively limited and unable to broaden the vision of Mamet’s study. Therefore, the dissertation having done a relatively systematic review on the research works of Mamet from home and abroad, attempts to apply Marxist psychoanalyst Erich Fromm’s theory of alienation to analyze Mamet’s, >Glengarry Glen Ross< and some other plays in order to reveal the deep reasons that cause the severe contradictions between the characters in the plays. The first part of the dissertation is an introduction. It firstly introduces the research objects, classifies existing research works and defines the theory of alienation used in this dissertation. Because Mamet has written many plays and that the research works on them employ various methods, it seems necessary to conduct a comprehensive summary and classification on the plays and research results so that an appropriate point can be chosen for the present study. Secondly, this part makes a comparison between different concepts of alienation because philosophers and scholars have diversified interpretations on the notion. Thirdly, this part also lists the research methods used in this dissertation, points out the new findings, and shows the directions for future work. Apart from the introduction, the dissertation consists of three chapters, aiming to analyze respectively the alienation phenomenon in business activities, interpersonal relationship and love. The tide of commodity economy has greatest influence on the society in a direct and violent way and business activities are the most common and noticeable in society. Therefore, the first chapter of the dissertation lays stress on the influence and exact forms of alienation in business activities. The research objects of this part are Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning work >Glengarry Glen Ross< and another play >The Water Engine< which also talks about commercial crime. The alienation in the form of >money worship< is analyzed in this part. The study of >Glengarry Glen Ross< concentrates on the salesmen, their office manager Williamson’s performance and the firm’s owners. The dissertation analyzes the roles mentioned above and their performance and finds that the immoral or illegal behaviors are closely connected with alienation which originates from the way in which the competition is conceived. >The Water Engine< focuses on the businessman Lawrence Oberman’s performance and compares his performance with his actual deeds and exposes how the sanctimonious man works with others to chase biased objectives. Both plays have such plots that business activities and crimes are mixed together. On the surface the incentive is attributed to the lack of ethics and moral imbalance; however, the reason behind it is the pursuit of one’s interest. The alienated people view physical materials and money as the ultimate purpose for which they try every means available even criminal actions to obtain. The fourth part of the chapter studies the language of the plays and tries to find how David Mamet use language to vivify the characters and exhibits the negative role of alienation in the business activities. The interpersonal relationship is important, for it binds the people together and in this sense it decides how people interact with each other and exerts fundamental effect on society, so the second chapter conducts a research on alienation in the interpersonal relationship of >Oleanna< and >American Buffalo< In the normal social atmosphere, care and help are the common forms of interpersonal interaction; however, in an alienated social relationship, the individual’s indifference and hatred prevail, the usual intimate relationship between people gradually disappears. Teach in >American Buffalo< persuades the owner of the junk shop to change his assistant in the theft, conceives most details of the stealing and keeps on maligning others. In effect, he is the character who makes story move forward and therefore his performance can be regarded as the focus of the play. The dissertation avails itself of social performance studies to examine the contradiction in his words and deeds and finds that there is deep-rooted sense of alienation in him. Carol in >Oleanna< undergoes the transformation from a solicitant to a bully and she is determined to destroy everything the professor owns, just because the professor refuses to satisfy her improper requests. Therefore, the dissertation concentrates on the discussion of the great difference in her performances when she respectively acts as a vulnerable or mighty individual and exposes the alienation features in her deeds and words. The dissertation analyzes the two plays, exposes the influences alienation exposes on interpersonal relationship and makes an attempt to trace to the root which causes it come into being. The fourth part of the chapter focuses on plot-and-scene analysis, examining how the plot develops in each scene. With a close reading of the text, the author reveals how the author reveals how Mamet chooses various special scenes to exhibit the disastrous impact that alienation exerts on the interpersonal relationship. Love is the mightiest form of all human feelings and is essential to human beings; love is also an inseparable part to literature and literary research. Coincidentally, Mamet produces many plays concerning the alienation in love which is also worth studying. The third chapter conducts a research on the alienation in love embodied in Mamet’s >The Woods< and >Boston Marriage<. Mamet’s works such as >The Woods< and >Boston Marriage< develops around the characters in love and contemporary people’s attitudes towards love are revealed through the conflict of the characters in the play. When The Woods was put on the stage, it caused a lot of media attention and comments which mainly focused on the language and plot; Boston Marriage paid much attention to lesbian love, loyalty and so on. But in the author’s point of view, these two plays reflect the >alienated< characters shaped by the capitalist industrial production mode. Nick in >The Woods< shows little interest in what his lover Ruth cares about and refuses to take his obligation in love; instead, he asks for love from Ruth when he needs and is keen on sexual desire. The dissertation studies his behaviors from the perspective of performance studies and reveals how his inability to love is exhibited in the play and how this kind alienation affects life. Anna in >Boston Marriage< starts a new close relationship with a man who is married with the excuse that she can get enough money to support her lesbian lover Claire. The dissertation analyzes his words and deeds by means of examining her performance closely and refutes her excuse and points out that what Anna plans is rooted in alienation. As a result, the dissertation analyzes her several tendencies originating from alienation such as money worship and non-frustration principles and shows that both her views and her actions are unrealistic. The chapter concludes that alienation is changing people’s usual view on love and undermines its basis. The last part of the chapter explores how Mamet uses alienation effect to highlight the catastrophic effect of alienation in love. The last part provides a conclusion which reiterates the research findings on the alienation in Mamet’s plays in the previous three chapters. This part concludes that alienation analyzed in the previous chapters is a wide-spread phenomenon in almost all of Mamet’s plays, which reflects Mamet’s anxiety over the deviation from regular norms of society. The dissertation makes use of theory from performance studies to analyze alienation of different forms in the six plays, which exhibits the concrete ways alienation exerts effect on society and reveals the rooted reasons of alienation. Since alienation casts undesirable influence on society and hampers the benign development of society and regular interaction between people, all the members of society should keep an eye on it. Fromm’s theory on alienation can not only explore the deep-rooted reasons of characters’ queer behaviors in the plays but also trace their origin from social development. What is more, the research results of Mamet’s plays from the perspective of alienation can function as a precious reference to the construction of a harmonious society. [Author's translation]

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Metadaten
Author:Yuying Wang
Document Type:Dissertations
Language:Chinese
Year of first Publication:2017
Release Date:2020/11/03
Format:no copy existent / keine Kopie vorhanden
IdNo:Wang_Yuying_2017
Writings about Erich Fromm (Secondary Literature):Dissertations / Dissertationen
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Dissertations / Dissertationen
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