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THE UNSEEN HAND and COWBOY MOUTH

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THE UNSEEN HAND and COWBOY MOUTH SELÇUK ÜN İVERS İTES İ SOSYAL B İLİMLER ENST İTÜSÜ İNG İLİZ D İLİ VE EDEB İYATI ANAB İLİM DALI İNG İLİZ D İLİ VE EDEB İYATI B İLİM DALI POP CULTURE IMAGES AND CONTEMPORARY MYTHMAKING IN SAM SHEPARD’S TWO PLAYS: THE UNSEEN HAND and COWBOY MOUTH YÜKSEK LİSANS TEZ İ Danı şman Yard. Doç. Dr. A. Gülbün Onur Hazırlayan Emine Tatkan KONYA-2006 CONTENTS ÖZET .................................................................................................................................i ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................ii INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1 CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN THEATRE: 1960s and 1970s and THE THEATRE OF SAM SHEPARD ..........................................................................6 1. 1. CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN THEATRE ....................................................6 1. 2. THE THEATRE OF SAM SHEPARD ................................................................11 1. 3. POP CULTURE PHASE OF SAM SHEPARD’S THEATRE ..........................18 CHAPTER 2 CONTEMPORARY MYTHMAKING IN SHEPARD’S TWO POP CULTURE PHASE PLAYS: THE UNSEEN HAND and COWBOY MOUTH ............................29 2. 1. THE UNSEEN HAND ...........................................................................................29 2. 2. COWBOY MOUTH ..............................................................................................71 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................107 REFERENCES ...........................................................................................................115 ÖZET Sam Shepard, modern Amerikan toplumunu ba şarılı şekilde yansıtan yenilikçi sanatıyla, ça ğda ş Amerikan tiyatrosunun en önemli yazarlarından biri olarak kabul edilmektedir. Oyun yazarlı ğına Off-Off Broadway adı verilen alternatif tiyatroda ba şlamı ş ve akımın ho şgörülü atmosferinde kendine özgü biçemini geli ştirmi ştir. Shepard’ın kariyerinin pop kültür evresine ait oyunları, çe şitli pop kültür kaynaklarından seçilmi ş mitik figürlerin ça ğda ş bir ba ğlamda i şlev kazandıkları, ça ğda ş Amerika’nın kültürel parçalanmı şlı ğını etkili şekilde iletmek üzere çok parçalı olarak yapılandırılmı ş, fantastik ve pop ögelerin karı şımından olu şan kolaj benzeri oyunlardır. Bu oyunlarda mit, modern bireylerin bölük pörçük deneyimlerini, bütünsel Amerikan deneyimine ba ğlamaya yarayan bir güç olarak ele alınmaktadır. Bu ara ştırmada, bir yandan Shepard’ın pop kültürel oyunlarından The Unseen Hand (1969) ( Görünmez El ) ve Cowboy Mouth (1971) ( Kovboy A ğzı ) adlı eserler, ça ğda ş mitler yaratmak üzere kullanılan pop kültür imgeleri açısından incelenmi ş, bir yandan da, ça ğda ş Amerika’nın, pop kültür imgeleri, mit ve çok parçalı yapı yoluyla nasıl ele ştirildi ği ortaya konmaya çalı şılmı ştır. Çalı şma sonucunda, Shepard’ın pop kültür oyunlarından bu iki önemli örne ğin, ça ğda ş Amerikan toplumu, siyaseti ve ya şam biçimine yönelik ciddi ele ştiriler sergiledikleri; bilim kurgu, Eski Batı mitosu ve 1950’lerin ergenlik dönemi pop kültürünün bir karı şımı olan The Unseen Hand ’in, ço ğu zaman tüketim ve bilimsel diktatörlükle tanımlanan modern dünyada, geçmi şiyle ba ğını koparmı ş, ruhsal olarak tükenmi ş bir toplumu yansıtırken, müzikli, metinlerarası bir yapı sergileyen Cowboy Mouth ’ın, yabancıla şma, belirsizlik ve güvensizlikten dolayı acı çeken, parçalanmı ş modern dünyada tutunacak bir şeyleri olmayan modern bireylerin umutsuz hallerine odaklandı ğı kanısına varılmı ştır. Ayrıca, Shepard’ın, The Unseen Hand ’de mitik kovboy, Cowboy Mouth ’da ise rock-and-roll yıldızı imgelerini modern Amerikan toplumundaki olumsuzluklara kar şı bir çıkı ş yolu olarak ele almasına kar şın, modern insanın mitlerle olan ba ğını çoktan koparmı ş olmasını neden göstererek, her iki oyununu da, mitin ça ğda ş kültürel ortamdaki geçersizli ğini vurgulayarak sonlandırdı ğı söylenebilir. ABSTRACT Sam Shepard is reputed as one of the most prominent playwrights of the contemporary American theatre due to his innovative drama that has brilliantly reflected the contemporary American experience. He started writing plays Off-Off Broadway and developed his own distinctive voice in the tolerant environment of the movement. Shepard’s plays of his “pop culture” phase are a blend of fantastic and pop elements where mythic figures chosen from diverse pop cultural sources such as movies and rock music are set to function in a contemporary context. These are collage-like plays constructed in a fractured structure so as to communicate the cultural fragmentation in the contemporary America. “Myth” is meant to serve as a unifying force that will connect the fragmented encounters of modern individuals with the whole American experience. The dissertation aimed to study two of Shepard’s pop cultural plays, The Unseen Hand (1969) and Cowboy Mouth (1971), regarding the pop culture images that were used to create contemporary myths. It also sought to demonstrate how a critical reflection of contemporary America was presented in the plays through pop culture images and the myth as well as the fractured construction. In consequence of the study, it may be stated that these two significant examples of Shepard’s pop cultural plays display a serious criticism of the contemporary American society, politics and way of life; The Unseen Hand – a blend of science fiction, Old West mythos and adolescent popular culture of 1950s – reflects a spiritually dead society who has lost its connections with its past in the modern world that is largely defined with consumerism and scientific totalitarianism, and Cowboy Mouth – an intertextual assemblage with music- focuses on the desperate situation of the modern individuals, who suffer from alienation, uncertainty and insecurity for having been left in a fractured modern world without something meaningful to cling on to. It may also be asserted that although Shepard suggests the mythic cowboy in The Unseen Hand , and the rock-and-roll star in Cowboy Mouth as a remedy for the ills of the modern society, he ends the plays by highlighting the irrelevance of the myth in the contemporary cultural environment since the modern man’s connection to it has already been broken. INTRODUCTION Sam Shepard has gained reputation as one of foremost living dramatists of the contemporary American theatre being defined by the phrases that underline his genius as a playwright and his being one of the most distinctive American voices of his period. Wade (1997) points out his having ascended to the “rank and stature accorded such figures as Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller” due to his career that has spanned decades, and his “hypnotic drama of American anxiety and ambition” that created great fascination among audiences. Wade also labels him as “the latest Great American Playwright”. (p. 1) King (1998) regards him as one of America’s “most inventive and prolific playwrights” on account of his career with more than forty plays. (p. ix) Shewey (1997) claims that “there has never been anyone else in American culture like Sam Shepard” drawing attention to his “original voice” - his “…making up his own rules for theatrical action and a language that popped and crackled with the modern sounds of a society…” (p. 3) In originating his own unique influence, Shepard owes much to Off-Off Broadway movement that led theatrical activities towards liberation encouraging them to explore “recombined or alternative modes of outlook enjoying a release from conventional hierarchies.” (Berkowitz, 1992, p. 121) Shepard was timely to have come to New York City in the early sixties to meet the start of the Off-Off Broadway theatre, and thus he found a tolerant environment to create his early works with an individual style. Shepard’s one account of his early plays reveals that they well corresponded to the demeanor of the movement that endorsed new experiments in form and content: …I didn’t really have any references for the theatre, except for the few plays that I’d acted in. But in a way I think that was better for me, because I didn’t have any idea about how to shape an action into what is seen – so the so-called originality of the early work just comes from ignorance. I just didn’t know. (Chubb, 1981, p. 191) Shepard also stated that he is glad for having initiated playwriting in line with the advent of Off-Off Broadway theatre: “I was very lucky to have arrived in New York at that time, though, because the whole Off-Off Broadway theatre was just starting – like Ellen Stewart with her little café, and Joe Cino, and the Judson Poets’ Theatre and all these places,” (Chubb, 1981, p. 192) probably for he was involved in “a special sort of culture” that was developing on the Lower East Side, and which embraced people coming from different parts of the country establishing a new community. (Chubb, 1981, p. 193) Shepard’s career as a playwright that began in the significant atmosphere of Off- Off Broadway, is often studied in two main categories: his “early” stage that included the plays produced between the mid 1960s and the late 1970s, and his “late” stage “family dramas” which started in 1978 and has been continuing. (Tekinay, 2001, p. 52) It is also suggested that States of Shock (1991) may be the onset of another period in Shepard’s career. (Geis, 1996, p. 45) The plays that belong to the early stage
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