AMERİKAN DÜŞÜ’NÜN KÖTÜ BİR SONUCU OLARAK AMERİKAN İŞ SİSTEMİNDE ANOMİ: DAVID MAMET’İN “AMERICAN BUFFALO” VE “GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS” ADLI OYUNLARI

Yıl 2021, Cilt: 14 Sayı: 35, 1129 - 1143, 15.09.2021

F.gül Koçsoy , Eda Güzelçiçek

https://doi.org/10.12981/mahder.938144

Cited By: 2

Öz

Bu makalede, Amerika’nın ekonomik ve sosyo-kültürel dönüşümleri ve ‘Amerikan Başarı Düşü’ bağlamında David Mamet’in (1947-) “American Buffalo” (1976) ve “Glengarry Glen Ross” (1984) adlı oyunlarındaki ‘anomi’ kavramı açımlanmıştır. Amerikan kapitalist iş sisteminin birer mikrokozmu olarak tasarlanmış olan oyunlarda erdem ve değerlerin sistemin zihniyetiyle ve ‘iş’ adıyla nasıl sömürülebilir metalara dönüştükleri gösterilmiştir. Maddi başarı temelli Amerikan düşünün baskıları ve Amerikan iş sistemin yanlış uygulamalarıyla hareket eden anomik karakterler hayatta kalma mücadelesi süreçlerinde etik kavramları ve normları çiğnerler; bu düzene ayak uydurup onu meşrulaştırarak normalleştirirler. Hatta maddi kazanç uğruna ve iş yapma adına bireysel veya kitlesel olarak suç işlerler. Karakterlerin var olma/başarılı olma gibi haklı ve sıradan amaçları ile bunlara ulaşmada kullandıkları etik-dışı araçlar arasındaki dengesizlik anomi durumunu oluşturmakta, davranış sapmaları ve şiddete yönelmelerine yol açmaktadır. Çalışmada, Emile Durkheim, Robert Merton, Steven F.Messner ve Richard Rosenfeld’in anomi kuramlarına dayanılarak, etik yoksunluğunun birey ve toplum üzerindeki olumsuz sonuçları açıklanmıştır. Etik gözetmeyen Amerikan iş sistemi normlarının yıkıcı etkileri ve oluşturdukları bireysel ve toplumsal çelişkiler sergilenmiştir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

David Mamet, “American Buffalo”, Anomi, Amerikan düşü, David Mamet, “American Buffalo”, “Glengarry Glen Ross”

ANOMIE IN AMERICAN BUSINESS SYSTEM AS AN AFTERMATH OF THE AMERICAN DREAM: DAVID MAMET’S “AMERICAN BUFFALO” AND “GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS”

Öz

In this article, the concept of ‘anomie’ in David Mamet’s (1947-) “American Buffalo” (1976) and “Glengarry Glen Ross” (1984) is analysed in the context of the economic and socio-cultural evolution of America and ‘The American Dream of Success’. It is shown how virtues and values with the mentality of the system and with the name of ‘business’ transform into exploitable commodifications in the plays, which are designed as the microcosms of American capitalist business system. The anomic characters who behave under the pressures of the material success based American dream and with the malpractices of the American business system transgress the ethic conceptions and norms in the course of their struggle of survival; they keep pace with this order, legalize and normalize it. Moreover, they commit crimes for the sake of material gain and in the name of business, individually and collectively. The unbalance between the characters’ right and ordinary aim of existence/being successful and the unethical means they employ to reach it forms the state of anomie and gives way to their inclination to behavioral deviation and violence. In the study, the negative results of the lack of ethics on individuals and society are presented referring to the anomie theories of Emile Durkheim, Robert Merton, Steven F. Messner and Richard Rosenfeld. The disruptive influences of American business system’s norms, which disregard ethics and the individual and social conflicts they generate are exhibited.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Anomie, American Dream, David Mamet, “American Buffalo” “Glengarry Glen Ross”.

Kaynakça

• Barranger, M.S. (2006). Theatre: A way of seeing. California: Thomson Wadsworth.
• Bigsby, C.W.E. (1985). David Mamet. London: Methuen & Co.,
• Bigsby, C.W.E (ed.) (2004). The Cambridge companion to David Mamet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Carlin, G. (1997). Brain droppings. New York: Hyperion.
• James, W. (2012). Classics of Western Philosophy. (ed. Steven M. Cahn), Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company Inc.
• King, K. (2004). Gradations of criminality in the plays of David Mamet. The Art of Crime, (ed. Leslie Kane), New York: Routledge.
• Köseman, Z. (2016). William Dean Howells’ Work Ethic in The Rise of Silas Lapham. Capitalism and Commerce in Imaginative Literature, (ed. Edward W. Younkins), 175-184, Lanham: Lexington Books.
• Mamet, D. (1977). American Buffalo. New York: Grove Press.
• Mamet, D. - C. W. E. Bigsby (1985). David Mamet. London: Methuen & Co.
• Mamet, D. - Savran, D. (1988). In their own words: contemporary American playwrights. New York: Theatre Communications Group.
• Mamet, D. (1992). (Qtd in Henry I. Schvey). Power plays: David Mamet’s theatre of manipulation. David Mamet: A Case Book, (ed. Leslie Kane), New York: Garland Publishing.
• Mamet, D. (1996). Speaking on stage: Interviews with contemporary American playwrights. (ed. Kolin, P.C. - Kullman, C. H.), Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press.
• Mamet, D. (2001a). Glengarry Glen Ross. London: Methuen Drama.
• Mamet, D. - M.C. Roudane (2001b). Something out of nothing. David Mamet in conversation, (ed. Leslie Kane), Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
• Mamet, D. (2006). The wicked son: Anti-Semitism, self-hatred, and the Jews. New York: Nextbook.
• Marx, K. - Engels, F. (1970). The German ideology. London: Lawrence & Wishart.
• Merton, R. K. (1968). Social theory and social structure. New York: The Free Press.
• Messner, S. F. - Rosenfeld, R. (1994). Crime and the American dream. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
• Nightingale, B. (2004). Glengarry Glen Ross. The Cambridge companion to David Mamet, (ed. Christopher Bigsby), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Orrù, M. (1987). Anomie: History and meanings. Boston: Allen & Unwin.
• Roudane, M. (2004). Betrayal and friendship: David Mamet’s American Buffalo. The Cambridge companion to David Mamet, (ed. Christopher Bigsby), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Sauer, D. K. (1996). The Marxist Child’s Play of Mamet’s Tough Guys and Churchill’s Top Girls. David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross: Text and Performance, (ed. Leslie Kane), New York: Garland Publishing.
• Sutherland, E. - C. J. Larson - G.R. Garret (1996). Crime, justice, and society. California: Altamira Press. Turner, J. H. - Beeghley, L. (2002). The emergence of sociological theory. Belmont CA: Wadsworth Thomson Learning.
• Tyson, L. (1994). Psychological politics of the American dream. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.
• URL 1. Adams, James Truslow (1931). The epic of America. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.262385 (Access Date: 02.05.2021)