Beyond a??Consenta??: David Mamet's Oleanna and a Hostile Environment for Souls

摘要

Here I read David Mamet's play Oleanna (19925. Mamet , D. ( 1992 ). Oleanna . New York , NY : Vintage Books .View all references) with the critical perspectives of Christian theologian Rowan Williams (20008. Williams , R. ( 2000 ). Lost Icons: Reflections on Cultural Bereavement . Edinburgh , UK : T&T Clark .View all references) and political theorist Drucilla Cornell (19951. Cornell , D. ( 1995 ). The Imaginary Domain: Abortion, Pornography and Sexual Harassment . New York , NY : Routledge .View all references). I argue that each reads the play to trace inadequacies in the framework of sexual dominance that frames the charactersa?? misbegotten responses to each other. This leads to a critique of an approach to sexual harassment that centers on boundaries or consent. Further, Williams and Cornell each propose conditions of spiritual development that are required to become a political person, which involve protected access to fantasy, desire, and public imagination. With these conditions in mind, I propose themes of reciprocity and play as alternative categories for interpreting what goes wrong in the relationship between the character John and his undergraduate student Carol.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15240657.2011.610225