IN JOHN BARTH'S "LOST ıN THE FUNHOUSE". AND SAM S~EPARD'S "ACTION
" AND "COWBOY MOUTH". Selda, ÖNDÜL. Samuel Beckett in Waiting for ...
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IDENTITY, CHOICE AND PERFORM~NCE .RITUALS IN JOHN BARTH'S "LOST ıN THE FUNHOUSE" AND SAM S~EPARD'S "ACTION" AND "COWBOY MOUTH" Selda, ÖNDÜL
Samuel Beckett in Waiting for Godot presents a world in which "Nothing. happens) nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful".l This absur d tragedy, depieting the human condition as a mere waiting for, something or someone to give man the sense of identity he lacks, was veıy well comprehended by the prisoners of San Quentin penitentiary during the performance there, November 19, 1957. A' teacher at the ptisonsaid, "They know what is meant by waiting ... and they kne'w if Godot finally came, he woulc\ only be a disappointment".2 However, the play is appealing not only to inmates but to any kind of "prisoners" as welL. More than a decade after Beckett's Waitingfor Godot, the novelist. story-writer John Barth and playwright (poet- movie star) .Sam ~he. pard are still trying to find answers to the. samequestions. Beckett was struggling with. Mr. Ba:rth in his short story "Lost in the Funhouse", and Mr. Shepard in his plays Action and CowboyMouth, for examples; are dealing with the m'ost fundamental issue of twentieth-century arts and ljt~rature-the quest for self, the. search ~or idenuty.
,
.
Mr. Bartlı's main concern in "Lost in the Funhouse" (also the, titIe to the collection of shortstories in which "Funhouse" appear~d) . as well as in most of his novels, 'is the dilerrı"maöfthe modern man when, confronted with the endless alternatives of reality. In End of the Road (1958), Jacob Horner is faced with a muhitude of possibilities for selecting a role. He does not khow whichone role to choose, thinking that the one he chooses will be inf~rior to the others. İ-Ie,finds reasons for not doing anything. However, he .cannot, concentrate on any one action. He canqot tak~ a stance. Thus, he ends iiı immobility. Ironi. cally and metaphoricaHy, at the train station, he cannot decide whe-
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SELDA ÖNDÜL
re to go, but there on the bench, experienccs a catatonic immobility, •which he himself calls cosmop'sis: cosmic neutrality. He starts seeing doctors in order to be able to attain some kind of motivation in life. One of the doctors advises him to move and to take a "role". He attempts to cure Jacob's immobilitythrough "mythotherapy." This activity, known as "role;pfaying" to physchologists, is especially emp~ hasized by J.L. Moreno, the f()rerunner of modern psychodrama. Through mythotherapeutic methods the doctor tries to make Jacob see that no one role is inferior -to the others, or, as Ebezener says in The Sot-Weed Pactar, "All roads are fine ro~ds". the dilernma Mr. Barth presents to the. reader is the overwhelming question, "whether thcre is such a thing as self aside from those organized appearances made possible by rules and rolcs;'.3 Since there are no arrows in life showing which way is the right way, how can man choose the "right role" for himself? Morcover, to choose means' to define, and definition becomes restriction. But no choice brings forthno eontour, and therefore, no identity. The nightmare of non-identity, of no form, is arecurrent
JL. Moreno once said that "Roles do not emerge from the self but the self may emerge from roles".16 In Moreno's psychodrama role-playing and story-telling are most important in creating an identity. Psyehodrama, through these performanee rituals, offers "an exeellent vehicle for exploring one's self images."17 According to Soren Kierkegaard, self-deception and despair form the basis for ,man's negative self-image,' and 'he like Sartre, holds man responsible for laeking decision, will power, .and identity. Despair is sin, he asserts; possibilities are the only saving remedies. Similarly, Moreno says that role-playing gives man the flexibility,he needs to adjust to the many possibilities life presents. He and Freud share the view of man as a universe paeked in one. Identity, freedom, and will power are,jmpor .• ( tant concepts to Freud as is the exploration of the inner landseape. ,
Both Shepard and Barth, in the plays and the story discussed, deal with what Freud calls Eros and Thanatos, images of creative and destructive energies. Their. charaeters are. po'v,:,erlessto either destroy or ereate (choiee) and for their laek of decision are caught in frames. Their sublimation attempts or performanee rituals lack the ,artist's total commitment to Eros (creative processes). As a. result, their inability to choose inveitably leaves them frozen half-way betwcen Eros and Thanato~, and they Icad their lives 'as "non-people". Adversely, the writers Barth (and A~brose who is imagicing the stories) and Shepard, in their literary and physieal expressions
IDENTİTY
CHoİcE
103
AND PERFORMANCE
of psychic states and abstract quaIities, are Ieading towards creation. Having committed themselves .to Eros they, as modern men. and artists, are creatively dealing with the unconscious in aneffort toexercise decision. Yct, an artist such as 't\litkacy (S.l. Witkiewicz) is not as lucky as one such as Strindberg. Witkacy, after having tried every kind of "road", and having realized that sublimation is onlya temporary escape from inertia, ended in compIete destruction (suicide). Strindberg, on the other hand, continued to strive after ex.periencing endIess disillusionments. . No matter how ecclectic Shepard and Barth fears and anxieties of previous centuriesas well Sometimes helpIessIy, other times with hope they man and the artist to risk faiIure by commitmenf exercise decisions. . .
are, they share the as theİr own time. call, upon modern to creation, and to
Notes i Martin Esslin, "Samuel Beckett: The search for' the self" in Tlze Tlzeatre qf tlze Abi
surd,
New
York,
1961, p. 4J.
2 Ibid., p. 2. 3 Tony Tanner, 4- Tony
"What is the Case?" ih Cil), of Words, New York, 1971, p. 238.
Tanner,
5 Abraham.J.
"Introduction"
Tanncnbau,!!,
to Ci~y of
hA Background
Wnrds,
pp.
9-19.
and Forwards
Glanee at the Gifted"
in Th.e National Eleme.ıtaı:y Pri:ıcijıal, New York, 19i2, p. 1. 6 John Barth, "Lost in the Funhouse" in Lost in the Funlzouse, New York, 1973, p. B7. 7 Martin. Esslin, The T/ıeatre of tlze Absurd, pp. 282 --3. 8 Tony Tanncr,
"'Vhat
is the Case?",
.
City of Words, p. 243.
9 Ibid., p. 244. iO. Sam Shepard, Angel City in Angel City, Curse of the Starving Class and Otlzer Plays, New York,
1981, p. 21. II Sam Shepard, Th.e Tooth qfCrime iri Four Two-Acl Pla.ys, New York, '1980, pp. 64-65. l2 S.am Shepard,
York,
Action in Angel Ci!.)" Cursp qf the Starving Class 'and Other Pla.vs, New
1981, p. 12G. 13 Tony Tanner, Introduction to Citv of Words, p. 17. 14 T.S. Eliot, "'fohe Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in Worldlı1asterjJieces,
Maynard 15 1964, p. 16
ed. by
Mach, New York, 1973, p.1700. Michael Meyer (trans.), Tlze Fatizer in The Plays of Strüıdberg Volume I, New York, 69. Elle l',;I;e Shearon, "Aspects of Persuasion in Psychodrama" .in Group Psychothrc-
ra,hy, P.!YcllOdromaand So:iometry Vol. XXXI,
1978, ed. by Zerka T. Moreno,
p. 99.
17 Ibid., p. 107. The self images according to Moreno are: 1. "Vhat I believe I am, 2. ''''hat I would like to be, 3. What I would like to appear to be, 1: What otlıers project on me, 5.. What others would like to be me, 6. What others prodnce or evoke in mG, 7. What i can become -seli:' ideaL.
SELDA ÖNDÜL
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Primary
Sourcts-
Barth, John. Lost in the Funhollse. New York: 1973. Shepard, Sam. Angel City, Curs,e of the Starving' Class, and Other Plays. New York: 1981. Seconda,ry. Sources Blatner, Howard A. Acting,~In. Practical Application of Pyschodramatic Methods. New York: 1973. Cohn, Ruby. New American Dramatists 1960-1980. New York: 1982. Esslin, Martin., The Theatre of the Absur1. New York: 1961. FaIk, Florence. "The Role or Performance in Sam Shepard's Plays" Theatre Journal, Volunıe 33, number 2, May 1981. i" Hassan, Ihab. Contempomry York: 1973.
American Litemture
, Hauck, Richard Royd. {1 Cheeiful Nihilism. KosteIanets, 1964.
1945- 1972. 1\ew
London:
1971.
Richard. ed. On Contemporary Literature. New York: /
,
Marranca, 'Honnie. ed. Anıerican Dreams,. Shepard. New York: 1981.
The Imagination of Sam
Marranca, Bonnie, and Gautam Dasgupta. AmericanPlaywrights,. A Critica i Survey. New York: 1981. McCarthy, Gerry. "Acting it out':' Sam Shepard's . dern Drama, vol. 22, number 1, !ılarch 1979. '
Action".
Mo-
•
Moreno, Ze~ka T.ed. Group Psychotherapy, Psychodmma and.Sociometıy. 'vol. XXXI, 19.7~. . Mullen, John D0u.glas. Kierkegaard' s Philosophy,. Selj-Deception Cowardice in the Present Age. New York: 1981. Tann'er, Tony. City of Words. New York: 1971.
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