Psychosocial or Mythological: Sam Shepard’s Kicking a Dead Horse as a Liberal Ironist

Muhammad Hussein Oroskhan, Bahee Hadaeg

Abstract


American West has conjured up a shining image in the media but a complex subject in the research studies. Among the iconic elements that represent the American West, the image of cowboy has occupied a unique place. Relatively, mythological or psychosocial methods may contribute to the comprehension of the image of cowboy. In this vein, an examination of cowboy with regard to the aforementioned perspectives are studied but proved insufficient because it is almost impossible to draw a fine distinction between these two matters. Nevertheless, the core of this study by attributing to one of Shepard’s late plays entitled Kicking a Dead Horse tries to address the issue of cowboy with regard to Richard Rorty’s liberal ironist to prove that neither mythological nor psychosocial approach is appropriate enough to study the image of cowboy whereas Shepard’s emphasis on self-creation as buttressed by Richard Rorty’s liberal ironist is the suitable method for analyzing the image of cowboy.

Keywords


Mythological, Psychosocial, Liberal Ironist, Cowboy

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.10n.3p.68

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