Sam Shepard and the Aesthetics of Performance

by E. Creedon

Overview

By concentrating on Sam Shepard's visual aesthetics, Emma Creedon argues that a consideration of Shepard's plays in the context of visual and theoretical Surrealism illuminates our understanding of his experimental approach to drama.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137530578
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	07/22/2015
Series:	What is Theatre?
Edition description:	2015
Pages:	199
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Emma Creedon has lectured at University College Dublin, Ireland and the National University of Ireland, Galway. She has also worked as a playwright and theatre director and her work has been published in the Journal of Contemporary Drama in English and Word and Text: A Journal of Literary Studies and Linguistics. Dr. Creedon was awarded her PhD from University College Dublin.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1. Surrealism and Sam Shepard's Early Plays: 1964 1967 2. Myth, Ritual and a Search for Selfhood: Surrealism in Sam Shepard's Plays from 1969 to 1972 3. Sam Shepard's Family Plays and the Representation of Gender 4. A Comparative Study of Sam Shepard's Angel City (1976) and Luis Buñuel's and Salvador Dalí's Un chien andal ou (1929) 5. Tongues (1978), Savage/Love (1979) and The War in Heaven: Angel's Monologu e (1985): Joseph Chaikin and Sam Shepard in Collaboration 6. States of Shock (1991) and Simpatico (1994): Performances of Waste 7. Conclusion: Through the 1990s and Beyond

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"In this book, Creedon provides an invaluable service to students of Shepard's work. Her learned evocation of a Surrealist context within which to situate and read Shepard's plays, early and late, produces truly significant insights, particularly into the visual elements of his theatre." - Stephen Watt, Indiana University Bloomington, USA

"Sam Shepard and the Aesthetics of Performance is an engaging, insightful, and beautifully argued study of selected Shepard plays. Exploring the Surrealist textures within the plays, and Shepard's ongoing search for the Real, Creedon makes a valuable and original contribution to the field. This is a solid piece of scholarship, one that is essential reading for those interested in Sam Shepard and the contemporary stage." - Matthew Roudané, Georgia State University, USA

Editorial Reviews

Emma Creedon’s Sam Shepard and the Aesthetics of Performance stands as a unique and important contribution to the vast scholarly material centered upon ‘the enfant terrible cowboy poet of the American stage’ … . this book serves as a notable contribution to works centered on Shepard while also plowing new terrain, revealing the promise of utilizing Surrealism to better elucidate theatre.” (Shannon Blake Skelton, Comparative Drama, Vol. 51 (3), 2017)

“If your interests are in how the output of an immensely talented and noted playwright reflects and also shapes the geist of his age, then welcome to Emma Creedon’s analysis. … Sam Shepard and The Aesthetics of Performance is an easy read. … Emma Creedon’s intensely researched work will prove enormously stimulating and thought-enhancing if one takes the time to consider the movement of a writer within streams of cultural influences.” (Hubert O'Hearn, sandiegobookreview.com, January, 2016)

From the Publisher