The World Grasped as Picture: Subjective Vision and the Embodiment of Male Gaze in Sam Shepard’s Seduced
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Ana Fernández-Caparrós Turina
Abstract
Sam Shepard’s Seduced (1978), an extravagant and obscure dramatic piece generally neglected by scholars and theatre practitioners, is a work containing a compelling meta-imaginative discourse and meditation on the influence of images and spectacle in the realm of everyday consciousness. This article explores its main character’s imposition of subjective vision in a solipsistic world, as well as the influence of cinematic images in his intellectual framework of understanding and creating a world picture. Building on feminist critique of film spectatorship, it identifies also, within the spectatorial possession of the world the protagonist pursues, the imposition of a male gaze and assesses its embodiment on the stage.
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© 2014 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/München/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Special Issue: Theatre and Politics: Theatre as Cultural Intervention
- Articles
- Gender, Identity and Contemporary India: A View Through Two Plays by Mahesh Dattani
- The Value of the Tragic in Contemporary American Drama: Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain, Sam Shepard’s The Late Henry Moss, Tracy Letts’s August: Osage County
- The World Grasped as Picture: Subjective Vision and the Embodiment of Male Gaze in Sam Shepard’s Seduced
- History Will Eat Itself: Rory Mullarkey’s Cannibals and the Terrors of End-Narratives
- Borderless Borders: Guillermo Gómez Peña’s The New World Border
- When Time Thickens and Takes on Flesh: Chronotopic Exploration of Edward Bond’s Paris Pentad Plays
- Reviews
- Julia Boll. The New War Plays: From Kane to Harris. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 183 pp., £50.00.
- Eliane Beaufils, ed. Quand la Scène Fait Appel...Le Théâtre Contemporain et le Poétique. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2014, 290 pp., € 34.00.
- Duška Radosavljević. Theatre-Making: Interplay Between Text and Performance in the 21st Century. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, xi + 288 pp., $85.00 (hardback), $28.00 (paperback).
- Jenn Stephenson. Performing Autobiography: Contemporary Canadian Drama. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013, 224 pp., C$ 45.00 (cloth), C$ 45.00 e-book (EPUB format).
- Paula Deubner. “Into the Light” – Selbst und Transzendenz in den Dramen Sarah Kanes. CDE Studies Volume 22. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 2012, 235 pp., € 27,50 (paperback).
- William W. Demastes. The Cambridge Introduction to Tom Stoppard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013, first published 2012, ix + 166 pp., £ 50,00 (hardback), £ 15,99 (paperback).
- Harvey Young. Theatre & Race. Houndsmill, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, v + 80pp., $ 10.00.
- Jill Dolan. The Feminist Spectator in Action: Feminist Criticism for the Stage and the Screen. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 248 pp., $ 80.00 (hardback), $26.00 (paperback).
- Sean Carney. The Politics and Poetics of Contemporary English Tragedy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013, 360pp., $34.95 (paperback), $75.00 (hardback), $34.95 (ebook).
- Harvey Young, ed. The Cambridge Companion to African American Theatre. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013, xix + 291 pp., $ 90.00 (hardback), $ 29.99 (paperback).
- Josephine Machon. Immersive Theatres: Intimacy and Immediacy in Contemporary Performance. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2013, xix + 324 pp., € 22,30.
- Liz Tomlin. Acts and Apparitions: Discourses on the Real in Performance Practice and Theory, 1990–2010. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013, ix + 226 pp., £ 65.00.
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Special Issue: Theatre and Politics: Theatre as Cultural Intervention
- Articles
- Gender, Identity and Contemporary India: A View Through Two Plays by Mahesh Dattani
- The Value of the Tragic in Contemporary American Drama: Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain, Sam Shepard’s The Late Henry Moss, Tracy Letts’s August: Osage County
- The World Grasped as Picture: Subjective Vision and the Embodiment of Male Gaze in Sam Shepard’s Seduced
- History Will Eat Itself: Rory Mullarkey’s Cannibals and the Terrors of End-Narratives
- Borderless Borders: Guillermo Gómez Peña’s The New World Border
- When Time Thickens and Takes on Flesh: Chronotopic Exploration of Edward Bond’s Paris Pentad Plays
- Reviews
- Julia Boll. The New War Plays: From Kane to Harris. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 183 pp., £50.00.
- Eliane Beaufils, ed. Quand la Scène Fait Appel...Le Théâtre Contemporain et le Poétique. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2014, 290 pp., € 34.00.
- Duška Radosavljević. Theatre-Making: Interplay Between Text and Performance in the 21st Century. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, xi + 288 pp., $85.00 (hardback), $28.00 (paperback).
- Jenn Stephenson. Performing Autobiography: Contemporary Canadian Drama. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013, 224 pp., C$ 45.00 (cloth), C$ 45.00 e-book (EPUB format).
- Paula Deubner. “Into the Light” – Selbst und Transzendenz in den Dramen Sarah Kanes. CDE Studies Volume 22. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 2012, 235 pp., € 27,50 (paperback).
- William W. Demastes. The Cambridge Introduction to Tom Stoppard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013, first published 2012, ix + 166 pp., £ 50,00 (hardback), £ 15,99 (paperback).
- Harvey Young. Theatre & Race. Houndsmill, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, v + 80pp., $ 10.00.
- Jill Dolan. The Feminist Spectator in Action: Feminist Criticism for the Stage and the Screen. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 248 pp., $ 80.00 (hardback), $26.00 (paperback).
- Sean Carney. The Politics and Poetics of Contemporary English Tragedy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013, 360pp., $34.95 (paperback), $75.00 (hardback), $34.95 (ebook).
- Harvey Young, ed. The Cambridge Companion to African American Theatre. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013, xix + 291 pp., $ 90.00 (hardback), $ 29.99 (paperback).
- Josephine Machon. Immersive Theatres: Intimacy and Immediacy in Contemporary Performance. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2013, xix + 324 pp., € 22,30.
- Liz Tomlin. Acts and Apparitions: Discourses on the Real in Performance Practice and Theory, 1990–2010. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013, ix + 226 pp., £ 65.00.
