Weasels and Wisemen: Ethics and Ethnicity in the Work of David Mamet - Hardcover

Kane, Leslie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312160860 ISBN 13: 9780312160869

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 1999

Synopsis

Winner of two Obie Awards, a New York Drama Critics Award, and the Pulitzer Prize, David Mamet is widely considered to be one of the most prolific and powerful voices in contemporary American theatre. A seminal figure whose reputation as an innovative playwright and filmmaker demands an appraisal of his thought and the evolution of his craft, Mamet’s commitment to the dynamic of ethics and ethnicity heavily informs his work. Weasels and Wisemen is the first major study of Mamet’s work to investigate the moral vision and cultural poetics upon which this playwright’s vision is founded. Tracing the development of Mamet’s canon over a period of twenty years from his early unpublished play Marranos through his most recent work, Leslie Kane examines the subtle link between the moral vision and ethical behavior that distinguishes Mamet’s theatre and film. In addition, Kane uniquely highlights the significance of Jewish values and cultural experience that have been insufficiently acknowledged in Mamet’s canon. Mamet’s commitment to the dynamics of ethics, ethnicity, betrayal, loss, and survival are explored within his work as are his sensitivity to language, precision of social obligation, metaphor, and brilliant sense of comedy along with the pedagogical relationships and ethical contracts that characterize his entire body of work. All of Mamet’s major works and several of his shorter and lesser known plays, sketches, and monologues are addressed, exposing the reader to some of his most demanding writing. Highly original in its interdisciplinary approach, Weasels and Wisemen illuminates the sources and scope of the work of one of America’s foremost playwrights and immeasurably enhances the reader’s understanding of his artistic expression.

About this title

About the Author:

Leslie Kane is Professor of English at Westfield State College. She is the author of The Language of Silence and the editor of David Mamet: A Casebook, winner of the Choice Award for Outstanding Scholarship.

From Library Journal:

Kane, editor of David Mamet Review: A Casebook, has written an illuminating study of one of America's most recognizable voices (e.g., Glengarry Glen Ross, American Buffalo). In his writing for both the stage and film, Mamet inspires heated discussion of ethics, morals, and our cultural concerns with power, the individual, and personal choices involving public and private acts. Kane explores the impact of Mamet's personal experience upon his aesthetic vision, clarifying the substantive Jewish content and methodology. Examining his entire oeuvre, she finds that Judaic thought and values are central to his artistic vision. With an extensive bibliography; recommended for all academic libraries and theater collections. (Index not seen.)ASusan L. Peters, Emory Univ. Lib., Atlanta
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0312160860
• ISBN 13: 9780312160869
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416