A Study Of Indetermanence In Oleanna

David Mamet has been confirming as one of the most important voices not only of his generation but also in the history of American drama, ranking along side Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, and Sam Shepard. His works have won numerous awards and prizes, including three Obie Awards and Pulitzer Prize for drama. Oleanna was one of his most controversial works in the1990s. Based on the realistic life, the three-act play tells a story that a professor in a college sexually harasses a female student and thus is accused of sexual harassment. Its premier stirs fierce debates over the racism, feminism, sexual harassment, political correctness and the meaning of higher education in American society. However, the postmodern features embodied in this play have been neglected. So far few scholars have conducted any deep and systematic studies from the perspective of Ihab Hassan’s theory of indetermanence. Therefore, based on some postmodernist theories, especially this thesis will adopt the postmodernist theory by Ihab Hassan, i.e. indetermanence, to analyze the postmodern features in Oleanna from the following aspects:themes, characters, and narrative techniques. Indeterminacy is a result of the disappearance of centre and authority while immanence means how human’s minds respond to the reality. The combination of these two trends shows postmodernism tends to be plural, open, disperse and uncertain and demonstrates the formidable rebellion and decentring strength in postmodern world.In Oleanna, with regard to the themes, the play elaborates from two facets:pedagogy and power, thereby deconstructing the coherent theme and presenting plural interpretations of the meaning of higher education and the constant shift of power. In their seeking self-identities, John and Carol are influenced by the two absent institutions-the Tenure Committee and the Group. They are given the identities by the institutions, and yet their self-identities are gradually deprived by them, making them wander on the edge of identity crisis. The open narrative structure invites the readers to participate in pondering over the ending and thus provides room for multiple interpretations of the ultimate meaning; the inversion of narrative language helps the characters exercise power and construct their identities. Therefore, the postmodern features of Oleanna are in line with Hassan’s theory of indetermanence, thereby deconstructing the traditional totality and centre and revealing the human’s miscommunication in postmodern conditions in Mamet’s eyes.