Resistance and Distribution of Power in David Mamet’s Oleanna and Race

This essay represents a Foucauldian reading of David Mamet’s Oleanna and Race. By drawing on Foucault’s view on the importance of the power relations exercised through discourses, Mamet illustrates the discourses that power is exercised. The focus is on the diffused and dispersed nature of power, its ubiquity and pervasiveness. Based on Foucault’s view on the circulation of power in schools and institutions; in Oleanna, the classroom discourse and interaction patterns show that knowledge is power. The ability to be more an intellectual and skillful individual in the class lets both John and Carol exercise power. Through normalization, everything is to be made uniform, and the subjected bodies are inducted in a way that they accept the disciplinary measures as the norm. Thus, John is the authority figure in his class who serves Carol to obey his dictates if she wants to pass the course. Through discourse of resistance carol takes advantage to respond to the power exercised on her through her knowledge. This shows that Carol has the potentiality to resist and attempt to exercise her power. Further, in Race, Mamet attempts to speak on matters of race and sexuality by presenting it in his discourse. He attempts to talk about sex as the fundamental part of individuals’ identities in order to solve the other underlying problems of an individual.