The Use Of VisualImages In Sam Shepard's Cutseof theStatvingClass, ButiedChild,and Ttue West

Abstract

As previous studies on Shepard have focused on the American image that he delineates, treating Shepard more as a social phenomenon than a theatre artist, this study proposes that if Shepard's works are to be fully assessed, his theatrical intentions as well as his thematic ones might be considered, and a common ground between the two ought to be established. This common ground is Shepard's occupation with the self and the world as unfixed, which is realized theatrically through his use of the visual images that dominate his dramas, particularly the 'Family Trilogy:' Curse of the Starving Class, Buried Child and True West.

The world that Shepard portrays in his family trilogy is that one which has lost or rejected the things that make it whole and integrated; a world where the institution of the family begins to dissolve as the sons turn to ineffectual and absent father for strength and love, and find none; a world where sons reject and must rediscover their heritage; a world in which family members become suddenly strangers, even when they return to the place they once called home; a world m which artists have lost the roots of their inspiration' s; a world which remains seemingly unchanged but which has actually turned into a foreign planet before the eyes of its inhabitants.

Shepard's achievement as a dramatist lies in his ability to externalize this malaise of contemporary society through his aesthetic use of the visual images which manifest the strangeness of the characters' world utilizing all stage potentials: setting, characters' portrayal and picturesque e'!counter, symboiic objects .and various kinds of food and drink.