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Between True and Simulacre in True West

  • Journal of Modern English Drama
  • Abbr : JMBARD
  • 2011, 24(2), pp.167-195
  • Publisher : 한국현대영미드라마학회
  • Research Area : Humanities > English Language and Literature > English Literature > Contemporary English Drama

So Young Yoon 1

1건국대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

True West(1980), written by Sam Shepard, belongs to his trilogy, including Curse of the Starving Class(1976) and Buried Child(1978). In this play, Lee and Austin are two sons of a father who does not appear on the stage. The relationship between father and two sons is a recurrent theme found in many American plays. The two sons are alter egos of their father. In True West, Lee is a desert rat whereas Austin is a successful writer in Hollywood. Absent father theme is a salient leitmotif among some representative American plays since this theme refers to malfunction and disintegration of a family where fathers left for their family, searching for their oppressed masculinity. Struggle and conflict between a father and two sons shows ambivalent feelings of complaints about and longing for their father. In this respect, bereft two sons search for and trace their father’s path. The producer, Saul Kimmer, chose Lee’s script rather than Austin’s because Lee’s endorses its authenticity. Lee’s authentic story is about the West which is real as told by Lee. Moreover, Kimmer’s decision of degrading Austin as a ghost writer seems to guarantee commercial success in the Hollywood mass culture. The West and his father’s false teeth are of significance in that both of them provide the sons with lack of lack. Their conflict is accelerated when they search for the authenticity of the West, which is written by ghost writer Austin based on the story produced by Lee. More specifically, Austin’s lack of experiencing to live in the West triggers to move towards the West. In particular, the West is an idealistic land where their father exists so that his sons would like to follow their father in order to ensure their masculinity. In so doing, they consume the image of the West since it is the very place where their father left for them and draws their imagination. As an imaginative place for the American Dream, the West is a simulacre for it continues to produce just false images. Also, the signifier, “the West” itself, is shown through the last scene, implying a variety of signifieds without ending. The final scene of confronting each other represents a still and eternal image of coyotes in the desert field, which is not supposed to end.

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