A body across the map: The father-son plays of Sam Shepard.
Item
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Title
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A body across the map: The father-son plays of Sam Shepard.
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Identifier
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AAI9720145
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identifier
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9720145
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Creator
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Taav, Michael.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Stanley Waren
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Date
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1997
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Theater | Literature, American
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Abstract
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The central conflict in many of Shepard's plays is that between either biological fathers and sons or father and son surrogates. In this dissertation, the conflict is investigated chronologically, beginning with The Rock Garden and concluding with A Lie of the Mind. Each conflict is analyzed in terms of the qualities ascribed the fathers and sons, the issues they debate, and the manner in which their conflicts are waged and resolved.;In the early plays, The Rock Garden, The Holy Ghostly, and The Tooth of Crime, the sons succeed in extricating themselves from their fathers or father surrogates by defeating them in an Oedipal battle of some sort. In the family plays, Curse of the Starving Class, and Buried Child, the sons fail in their attempts at autonomy, and instead, fall prey to the same hereditary curses which befell their fathers. In True West, it is the hermit father, via his surrogate, who defeats his son, punishing him for having dared to create an independent life. In A Lie of the Mind, Shepard utilizes elements from many of his earlier father-son plays, creating a drama where the protagonist both falls victim to his father's curse and destroys him. What distinguishes this, Shepard's most hopeful work, from his earlier ones, is that the son suffers for what he has done and as a result, is spiritually transformed. Initially violent and self-deceiving, he emerges from the play a gentle penitent, having transcended his father's curse.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
