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Article published In:
English Text Construction
Vol. 14:1 (2021) ► pp.94–111

Remediating the culture industry

Sam Shepard’s political play States of Shock

| Vrije Universiteit Brussel

This article examines to what dramaturgical effect Sam Shepard’s political play States of Shock (1991) remediates strategies associated with the culture industry. In plays, spectators forge an interpretation from a medium that is considered ‘hypermedial’ or capable of combining discrete signifying systems such as dialogue, costumes, acting style and scenography at the same time. In States of Shock, genre remediation implicates its audience in the spectacle of war by juxtaposing American war heroism and military ideology with entertaining vaudeville. By examining Shepard’s appropriation of the vaudeville genre in relation to other dramatic signifying systems, the article offers a new and more layered reading of the play’s supposedly ‘blatant’ political message.

Keywords: culture industry, remediation, Sam Shepard, States of Shock , vaudeville
Article outline
  • 1.Revisiting Shepard’s late political plays
  • 2.Culture industry remediation and the hypermediality of the theater
  • 3.Analysis of States of Shock
    • 3.1Hypermediations of ‘the spectacle of war’
    • 3.2Confronting political ideology through vaudeville remediation
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 15 September 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.21012.tho
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