Polyphony: Authorship and Power

Abstract

House of Games, David Mamet’s first directorial offering from 1987, is essentially concerned with the problem of who has the right to narrate whom, and why — a theme that suggests the possibility of a productive encounter with the Bakhtinian category of polyphony. Mamet pitches a female protagonist into a masculine realm of discourse that is closed-off, impenetrable to the outsider. This drama of communication is played out, however, within a broader context that raises questions around the space that is allowed within patriarchal culture for women to create their own discourse, to objectify themselves and thus make themselves subjects of their own stories. Invoking theoretical issues such as the positioning of the female spectator, Mamet’s film enunciates how speech genres¹ entrenched in the codes of patriarchy are manipulated to achieve dominance, and how such abuse of language constitutes monologic oppression. The attitude the film displays to the concept of narrative is critical — situating the narrative agency proves an extremely elusive task. The incorporation into the text of motifs from the genre of film noir — especially regarding the representation of its main female character — also hints at a kinship with that tradition.