Editing David Mamet (section)

== Style and reception ==
=== Mamet speak ===

Mamet's style of writing dialogue, marked by a cynical, street-smart edge, has come to be called ''Mamet speak.''<ref>A Companion to Twentieth-century American Drama, David Krasner, Blackwell Publishing, 2005, p. 410</ref> Mamet himself has criticized his (and other writers') tendency to write "pretty" at the expense of sound, logical plots.<ref>{{cite book|title=Writing in Restaurants |url=https://archive.org/details/writinginrestaur00mame |url-access=registration |last=Mamet |first=David|year=1987 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=9780140089813 }}</ref> When asked how he developed his style for writing dialogue, Mamet said, "In my family, in the days prior to television, we liked to while away the evenings by making ourselves miserable, based solely on our ability to speak the language viciously. That's probably where my ability was honed."<ref>{{cite book|title=The Playboy Interviews: The Directors |editor=Stephen Randall |year=2006 |publisher=M Press |page=276 |chapter=David Mamet: April 1996, interviewed by Geoffrey Norman and John Rezek}}</ref>

=== Gender issues ===
Mamet's plays have frequently sparked debate and controversy.<ref name="TG">{{cite news|url=http://bway.ly/e1kah#https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/jul/08/david-mamet-warns-theatres-25000-fine-if-you-discuss-my-work-glengarry-glen-ross-oleanna|title=David Mamet's $25,000 threat to theatres over post-show talks|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|first=Dalya|last=Alberge|date=July 8, 2017|access-date=July 12, 2017}}</ref> Following a 1992 staging of ''[[Oleanna (play)|Oleanna]]'', a play in which a college student  accuses her professor of trying to rape her,<ref name="Chiaramonte">{{cite journal |last1=Chiaramonte |first1=Peter |title=Power play: The dynamics of power and interpersonal communication in higher education as reflected in David Mamet's Oleanna |journal=Canadian Journal of Higher Education |date=2014 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=38–51 |doi=10.47678/cjhe.v44i1.182431 |url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1028749.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150409163153/http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1028749.pdf |archive-date=2015-04-09 |url-status=live|doi-access=free }}</ref> a critic reported that the play divided the audience by gender and recounted that "couples emerged screaming at each other".<ref name="TG" />

In his 2014 book ''David Mamet and Male Friendship'', Arthur Holmberg examined Mamet's portrayal of male friendships, especially focusing on the contradictions and ambiguities of [[male bonding]] as dramatized in Mamet's plays and films.<ref>Holmberg, Arthur (2014). ''David Mamet and Male Friendship'', 276 pages, Palgrave Macmillan, {{ISBN|978-1137305183}}.</ref>

=== Archives ===
The papers of David Mamet were sold to the [[Harry Ransom Center]] at the [[University of Texas at Austin]] in 2007 and first opened for research in 2009.<ref>{{cite web |title=David Mamet: An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center |url=http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00486p1 |access-date=April 9, 2016 |website=norman.hrc.utexas.edu}}</ref> The growing collection consists mainly of manuscripts and related production materials for most of his plays, films, and other writings, but also includes his personal journals from 1966 to 2005. In 2015, the Ransom Center secured a second major addition to Mamet's papers, including more recent works. Additional materials relating to Mamet and his career can be found in the Ransom Center's collections of [[Robert De Niro]], [[Mel Gussow]], [[Tom Stoppard]], [[Sam Shepard]], [[Paul Schrader]], [[Don DeLillo]], and John Russell Brown.