RECLAIMING FEMALE SUBJECTIVITY: A KRISTEVAN ANALYSIS OF SUBVERSION OF SEXUAL DIFFERENCE IN SAM SHEPARD’S THREE MAJOR PLAYS

Abstract

The study intends to examine three major plays by Sam Shepard – “True West”, “Fool for Love”, and “A Lie of the Mind” – to explore the underlying causes of women’s subjugation from Julia Kristeva’s perspective, which is adopted here as the theoretical framework. Kristeva’s views on the exclusion of women from the symbolic order to maintain a gender hierarchy will be utilized to pinpoint the reasons behind men’s violence towards women. Moreover, we shall examine the struggles of female characters to liberate themselves from the oppression of the symbolic order by resisting the demands of patriarchy. The findings suggest that female characters’ attempt to delimit the definition of female subjectivity and motherhood is in line with Kristeva’s promotion of a new interpretation of femininity/maternity. In the study, we have come to the conclusion that, in accordance with Kristeva’s theories, the attempts of women to follow their desire and reconstruct female subjectivity is the ultimate strategy to disrupt patriarchal hegemony.