데이빗 매밋(David Mamet)의 에세이에 나타난 유태성과 다문화주의적 가치관 고찰

Abstract

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Jewishness and Multiculturalism in David Mamet’s Essays

Kyu-Cheol Hwang

David Mamet, one of the major contemporary American playwrights is an American Jew whose parents were the children of the Ashkenazic immigrants. However, no Judaism was practiced in his home. His Jewish consciousness was reawakened when he went to his niece's bat mitzvah. His concerns about the difficulty of remaining as American Jews and some types of conflicts of the Jews and the Gentiles in America are shown in his essays. According to his essays, the Jewish-Americans' conflicts in their communities are mainly caused by the crisis of their ethnic identity. And the type of conflicts of Jewish-Americans and Anglo-Americans is the religious one in schools and public buildings. Besides, it is Anti-Semitism that Mamet recognizes as a common chronic symptom in and out of the Jewish-American communities. The reason why Mamet gives a full account of some problems concerning Jewish- Americans is to ask for giving recognition to the difference and diversity of each racial and ethnic group in America. So, it can be inferred that each group should inherit and develop their own ethnicity but should not oppress and exploit all other groups who differ in race and ethnicity. Conclusively, Mamet probes into the Jewish-American dilemma and finds it desirable for one racial and ethnic group to understand and respect the difference and diversity of all other groups in his essays. For this reason, Mamet can be viewed as a multiculturalist emphasizing diversity over unity.