Verbal Violence in Contemporary Drama

Abstract

In this book, Jeanette Malkin considers a broad spectrum of post-war plays in which characters are created, coerced and destroyed by language. The playwrights examined include Handke, Pinter, Bond, Albee, Mamet and Shepard, as well as Vaclav Havel and two of his plays: The Garden Party and The Memorandum. These playwrights portray language's power within our political, social and interpersonal worlds. The violence that language does, the 'tyranny of words', grabs centre stage in their plays. Characters are manipulated and defined through language, their actions and identity limited by verbal options, in order to reveal the links between language and power. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of drama, theatre history, American and European literature, and comparative literature.

Persuasive Speech and the Power Play in Pinter’s Mountain Language: An Interdisciplinary Analysis

“…Many of these have led to the formation of (and extensive de-bate on) the terms "comedy of menace" and "Pinteresque", which are nowadays commonly associated with the author. Countless other critics, including Guido Almansi and Simon Henderson (1983), Jeanette Malkin (1992), and Marc Silverstein (1993), made the playwright's idiosyncratic dramatisation of strategic use of language (as a vehicle of domination, repression and violence) the focus of their research. Jeanette Malkin aligned her analysis with this track in her investigation of the "theatre of language" 7. .…”

Aggressive Language in Literature: A Pragmatic Approach

“…Many scholars have studied how aggression and violence are found in many literary works. Malkin (1992), for instance, investigated verbal violence in many contemporary dramatic works. The focus, however, was not on the linguistic representations of aggression nor was it on the pragmatic strategies that convey it.…”

Emotive language as construction of situational aggression among drivers at gridlock scenes in Nigeria

“…Krupansky [12] posits that people who use aggressive language do so for short cut to their ends, domination, fun, show of ego and status with the tendency to assault. This category of persons, according to Bayer and Cegala [13] , Malkin [14] , and Lozovska and Gudaite [15] , are often motivated by frustration, deficiency of argumentative skills, seeking for safety, self-defense and confidence. These impulses result in yelling and shouting on others to cause psychological hurt and destroy harmony in social communication.…”