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Sam Shepard’s Critique of the Notion of Enemy and Message of Harmony in the Pacifist Dramas: The States of Shock, When the World Was Green (A Chef’s Fable), and The God of Hell

  • Journal of Modern English Drama
  • Abbr : JMBARD
  • 2008, 21(1), pp.31-57
  • Publisher : 한국현대영미드라마학회
  • Research Area : Humanities > English Language and Literature > English Literature > Contemporary English Drama

남정섭 1

1영남대학교

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ABSTRACT

With The States of Shock, Sam Shepard returned to his original territory, American psyche, and started to champion the noble cause of peace and harmony. The latest play, The God of Hell, was his reaction to the 911 and its aftermath, especially the on-going Iraq War, as the former was his reaction to the American public’s favourable reception of the Gulf War in 1991. When the World Was Green (A Chef’s Fable), which he created in collaboration with Joseph Chaikin, strongly emphasizes the importance of mutual understanding and open-mindedness. In his three pacifist dramas, Shepard argues that Americans’ fear of unknown enemy should be replaced by their efforts to understand others and achieve harmony with them. The president Roosevelt’s message—“Only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”—is what Shepard is eager to deliver to his American audience. To summarize his arguments, Americans’ distrust and fear of others are the real enemy of contemporary Americans. The pacifist dramas adopted many elements from his plays written in the 1960s in terms of stagecraft and subject matter. Experimental mood is another similarity. However, their political implications and pacifist messages distinguish them from his previous works. Shepard’s changes in the pacifist dramas make us curious about what kind of plays he will write in the future.

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