Title : ( Lyotard's Notion of Grand Narratives in Death of a Salesman and Glengarry Glen Ross )
Authors: habeeb al qassab , Zohreh Taebi Noghondari , Rajabali Askarzadeh Torghabeh ,Abstract
Abstract Arthur Miller (1915-2005) and David Mamet (1947) are two of the world's most renowned dramatists due to writing plays like Death of a Salesman (1949) and Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) which are concerned with the theme of American dream and how the blind faith in it may lead to moral corruption. These two dramatists' obsession with this dream's falsehood is in accordance with Jean-François Lyotard's outlook about the death of metanarratives like the American dream that has been replaced with some micro-narratives. This could be investigated clearly through Death of a Salesman and Glengarry Glen Ross which doom the deceitful capitalist society by showing the bitter reality of the American dream. This paper attempts to analyze these two plays through Lyotard's notions of the "metanarrative" and "little narrative" to discuss how his distrust towards the metanarratives and objective realities can be traced in these plays. The results will show that Miller uses the modern approach in his play to criticize the destructive effects of capitalistic system and also show how the ideals of American dream turn into nightmare. On the other hand, Mamet uses the postmodern approach to play with ideals of American dream and show how the \inalienable right of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness turn into competitive world, and the land of opportunity has become a lottery in which one will reach to the top by defeating all others.
Keywords
, KeyTerms: American dream, Grand narratives, Micronarratives, The Postmodern Condition@inproceedings{paperid:1064865,
author = {Al Qassab, Habeeb and Taebi Noghondari, Zohreh and Askarzadeh Torghabeh, Rajabali},
title = {Lyotard's Notion of Grand Narratives in Death of a Salesman and Glengarry Glen Ross},
booktitle = {2nd International Conference on Literature and Linguistics},
year = {2017},
location = {تهران, IRAN},
keywords = {KeyTerms: American dream; Grand narratives; Micronarratives; The Postmodern
Condition},
}
%0 Conference Proceedings
%T Lyotard's Notion of Grand Narratives in Death of a Salesman and Glengarry Glen Ross
%A Al Qassab, Habeeb
%A Taebi Noghondari, Zohreh
%A Askarzadeh Torghabeh, Rajabali
%J 2nd International Conference on Literature and Linguistics
%D 2017