Esta dissertação propõe analisar os diálogos da peça Glengarry Glen Ross, de David Mamet, um dos principais dramaturgos do teatro norte-americano contemporâneo. A hipótese sugerida é que esses diálogos substituem a ação dramática e representam o substrato social que serviu de ponto de referência para a criação do enredo. São neles que as \"relações venais\" e o jogo de poder entre os personagens se concretizam, numa linguagem ilusória e ambígua, na qual valores individuais e comunitários, como a confiança, a amizade, a afeição, a lealdade e a verdade se subverteram, diante da necessidade de sobrevivência ou do sucesso a qualquer preço, ditados pelas práticas comerciais, pelas relações de poder, por uma mentalidade de negócios predatória e se transformaram em mercadoria, lucro e roubo. Glengarry Glen Ross (1983) faz parte da chamada \"trilogia do poder\", que abarca ainda American Buffalo (1975) e Speed-the-Plow (1985). As personagens dessas peças ou vivem à margem da sociedade capitalista norteamericana, como o triângulo masculino em American Buffalo, ou são representantes da baixa classe média, como os corretores de imóveis de Glengary Glen Ross, submetidos a uma competição feroz imposta pela direção da firma, onde os vencedores são promovidos e os perdedores, demitidos. Nessas circunstâncias, o contato humano entre eles foi corrompido pela ganância, pelo dinheiro, pela necessidade de sobrevivência. Essas peças são um exercício de crítica ao darwinismo social. / This dissertation aims to analyze the speeches in Glengarry Glen Ross, a play by David Mamet, one of the leading playwrights of the contemporary American theatre. The hypotheses suggested are that these speeches replace the dramatic action and that they represent the social stratum which has served as reference point for the creation of the plot. They also make the \'venal relations\' and the power game between the characters concrete, but they do so through the use of a deceptive and ambiguous language, in which individual and communal values, such as trust, friendship, affection, loyalty and truth, are subverted, in face of the need for survival or success at any cost, determined by commercial practices, power relations, predatory business mindset, and are turned into commodities, profit and theft. Glengarry Glen Ross (1983) is part of the \"power trilogy\", which also comprises American Buffalo (1975) and Speed-the-Plow (1985). The characters in these plays either live on the margins of the American capitalist society, as the ones in the masculine triangle in American Buffalo, or are representatives of the lowermiddle- class, such as the realtors in Glengarry Glen Ross, subjected to a cutthroat competition by the corporation owners, in which the winners are promoted and the losers are fired. In these circumstances, genuine human contact among them is corrupted by greed, money, and the need for survival. These plays are an exercise of criticism of social Darwinism.

Esta dissertação propõe analisar os diálogos da peça Glengarry Glen Ross, de David Mamet, um dos principais dramaturgos do teatro norte-americano contemporâneo. A hipótese sugerida é que esses diálogos substituem a ação dramática e representam o substrato social que serviu de ponto de referência para a criação do enredo. São neles que as \"relações venais\" e o jogo de poder entre os personagens se concretizam, numa linguagem ilusória e ambígua, na qual valores individuais e comunitários, como a confiança, a amizade, a afeição, a lealdade e a verdade se subverteram, diante da necessidade de sobrevivência ou do sucesso a qualquer preço, ditados pelas práticas comerciais, pelas relações de poder, por uma mentalidade de negócios predatória e se transformaram em mercadoria, lucro e roubo. Glengarry Glen Ross (1983) faz parte da chamada \"trilogia do poder\", que abarca ainda American Buffalo (1975) e Speed-the-Plow (1985). As personagens dessas peças ou vivem à margem da sociedade capitalista norteamericana, como o triângulo masculino em American Buffalo, ou são representantes da baixa classe média, como os corretores de imóveis de Glengary Glen Ross, submetidos a uma competição feroz imposta pela direção da firma, onde os vencedores são promovidos e os perdedores, demitidos. Nessas circunstâncias, o contato humano entre eles foi corrompido pela ganância, pelo dinheiro, pela necessidade de sobrevivência. Essas peças são um exercício de crítica ao darwinismo social. / This dissertation aims to analyze the speeches in Glengarry Glen Ross, a play by David Mamet, one of the leading playwrights of the contemporary American theatre. The hypotheses suggested are that these speeches replace the dramatic action and that they represent the social stratum which has served as reference point for the creation of the plot. They also make the \'venal relations\' and the power game between the characters concrete, but they do so through the use of a deceptive and ambiguous language, in which individual and communal values, such as trust, friendship, affection, loyalty and truth, are subverted, in face of the need for survival or success at any cost, determined by commercial practices, power relations, predatory business mindset, and are turned into commodities, profit and theft. Glengarry Glen Ross (1983) is part of the \"power trilogy\", which also comprises American Buffalo (1975) and Speed-the-Plow (1985). The characters in these plays either live on the margins of the American capitalist society, as the ones in the masculine triangle in American Buffalo, or are representatives of the lowermiddle- class, such as the realtors in Glengarry Glen Ross, subjected to a cutthroat competition by the corporation owners, in which the winners are promoted and the losers are fired. In these circumstances, genuine human contact among them is corrupted by greed, money, and the need for survival. These plays are an exercise of criticism of social Darwinism.

This master's thesis analyses the following plays by contemporary American playwright, David Mamet: Oleanna (1992) and Glengarry Glen Ross (1983). The thesis deals with the discourse that was used and the question of the characters' power relations, which are examined from a sociolinguistic point of view. Firstly, the thesis defines power relations according to Michel Foucault and shows that communication can serve as an instrument of how to act upon others. The thesis is primarily based on the theory of Deborah Tannen, who observes the ambivalent nature of solidarity and power, and introduces her five areas of interest: indirectness, interruption, silence versus volubility, topic raising and verbal conflict. The thesis examines a selection of dialogues from the plays in order to elucidate how these aspects further influence the actions and behaviour of the characters, and explores the effects of the utterances including the effects of power. The thesis also deals with the question of failure of communication, which is examined from the perspective of Roman Jakobson's functions of language, Paul Grice's cooperative principle and Geoffrey N. Leech's politeness principle. Key Words Mamet, Oleanna, Glengarry Glen Ross, discourse, power, power relations, failure of communication

This thesis explores the status of a specific subset of absent characters within twentieth century American drama. By borrowing the term “proximate cause” from tort law and illuminating its intricacies through David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature, this thesis re-appropriates proximate cause for literary studies. Rather than focus on characters whose existence remains the subject of critical debate, this set of absent characters presumably exists but never appear onstage. Despite their non-appearance onstage, however, these absent characters nonetheless have a profound effect upon the action that occurs during their respective plays. Highlighting the various ways in which these characters serve as the proximate cause for the onstage action of a given play will expand the realm of drama and literary studies in myriad ways.

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