Spatial and Temporal Politics of Memories: Focusing on Shepard’s Fool for Love

Abstract

Well-known for a prolific writer, Shepard won a variety of awards. Shepard’s theatrical techniques are particular and salient to investigate. The West is one of his recurring themes, which are focused on American identity, American-ness, American fathers’ masculinity as well. Sam Shepard as a successor to tradition of American plays embodies his peculiar realism on the stage, his theatrical techniques sums up representation of using real props, immediacy and transformation techniques. His Family Trilogy and Family Plays are representative ones to show his theatricalism. This study investigates Sam Shepard's Fool for Love, which belongs to his Family Plays. Its main focus is on spatial division and temporal reversal with a view of incestuous relationships between siblings. This stage has conscious and subconscious spaces which are revealed by dividing characters’ areas onstage. Among them, women's space seems relatively empty like the picture the Old Man pointed out. There certainly exists May, but there is no room for their mothers despite providing their father’s space. Moreover, the father figure shows authorities to cross the border between reality and fantasy. In particular, the Old Man’s utterance has control over Eddie. Memories of the characters onstage are connected to passage of time; especially to show the Old Man’s past duality. For that reason, Eddie and May are inseparably stuck in rhetorical topography of love. Therefore, their foolishness for love is about the Old Man’s dual life with his two families. Like a quote by Archbishop Anthony Bloom, “The proper response to love is to accept it. There is nothing to do.”