| This dissertation searches for meanings of becoming American through comparative studies of the American West as a psychological locus for establishing American identity in Sam Shepard's plays and films, and several Asian American texts.; The first chapter, "Introduction," introduces basic arguments on which this dissertation is founded. First, the American West is a psychological locus for becoming American. Second, Asians were imaginary father to Europeans who killed this imaginary father to take over the empty throne in the new land of their dreams, the West. Third, America and China are empty signifiers. Four, social castration imposed on Asian Americans makes them assume a quite different position from European Americans.; The second chapter, "In the Name-of-the-Father: Fool for Love (1983/1985)," explores very important psychoanalytic notions such as the name (death) of the father, creation ex nihilo, fantasy, the symbolic phallus, symbolic repetition, sexual difference, the real resisting the symbolic, and Lacan's reinterpretation of the Fort-Da game. Symbolic castration, which is unavoidable to every speaking subject who has entered the world of language, is the foundation of the Shepardian creation of the West, where the father is either dead or in a self-imposed exile in the desert, leaving others plenty of leeway. The appearance of the absent Old Man, the repetition of disappearance and return of the father and the son, and the women resisting the cruel game of the men make Sam Shepard's Fool for Love, combining both play and film, a good example of reification of the aforementioned notions inspired and developed by Lacan.; The third chapter, "The Failure of the Dream of Masculinity and the Rise of Daughters in Sam Shepard's Far North (1988) and Silent Tongue (1994)," analyses the two Shepard's films which deconstruct the old West established on the fantasy of masculine heroism and White supremacy. Strong daughters rise to replace men in the empty space where fathers are fallen and masculine bond is broken. Acknowledgement of the ontological presence of sexual difference and deconstruction of masculine ideologies, which characterize the two films, clear Shepard of the false charge of misogyny and provides a new point of view to understanding Shepard's works.; Louis Chu's novel and Wayne Wang's film, Eat a Bowl of Tea, and Maxine Hong Kingston's collective autobiographies, The Woman Warrior and China Men, explore Asian experiences in the milieu of the anti-Asian legislation and the psychological consequences which rid Asian Americans of speech in public spaces and distort Asian American sexuality, emasculating Asian men.; The fourth chapter, "Affirming Female Desire: Mei Oi's Transcendence from Louis Chu to Wayne Wang's Eat a Bowl of Tea (1988)," critically examines some criticisms focusing on the main male character's geographically restricted impotence. Through the examination and comparative reading of both the novel and the film, I argue that the male character is depicted as an obsessional in the novel and a hysteric in the film; his hysteria is caused by emasculation of Asian men in racist American society; his hysterical impotence is cured by sacrificial satisfaction of female desire; and desiring female subject is exalted to a holy mother in the film.; The fifth chapter, "The Two Names: The Woman Warrior (1976) and China Men (1980)," intertextually examines Maxine Hong Kingston's feminine text The Woman Warrior and masculine text China Men. Inscription of Chinese Americans in the symbolic world of America is the common purpose for the two texts but narrative styles are differently sexuated. Kingston argues that intersubjectivity of Chinese American women is the locus and driving force for woman warriors' war of words; and talking and writing stories of them is their way to fight. Breaking forced silence is the most important issue in China Men and is her motivation of writing it. They speak up and keep tal... |
