To Close or Not to Close, That Is the Question: Sam Shepard’s Deconstructive Evasion of Closure in A Lie of the Mind

Sam Shepard’s dramatic vision, like Jacques Derrida’s philosophy, observes not a world securely supported by metaphysical certainties, but one of discards and throwaways appeased by landscapes filled with fragments and debris. It is, therefore, pointless to employ traditional methodologies to extract meaning out of a drama designed to resist this sort of interpretive strategy. If there is no methodology capable of resolving the fractured and indeterminate nature of Shepard’s drama, then it is essential to approach these plays from a perspective (deconstruction) that is unafraid of uncertainty and is not disappointed by an inability to arrive at a final and authoritative reading. Shepard’s resistance against the urge to create “closed” and “finished” texts reminds one of a major subject of poststructuralist/deconstructive concern: “closure,” which—because it stifles the interpretive process—must be recognized and avoided. This article is devoted to the examination of how Shepard, who is committed to an artistic vision that accepts indeterminacy, manages to end a play without limiting its interpretive possibilities; A Lie of the Mind is the text which will be studied to that end.