論文摘要
美國夢這個神話深切地影響著美國的文學作品，而美國夢本身的轉變也反映出美國不同時期的歷史情境，因此當社會經歷過劇烈的變化後，美國作家要如何重新面對這文化資產便成為一重要議題。雖然成長的過程受到美國夢的薰陶，山姆雪帕並非毫無保留地接受這夢想。他仔細地審視並透過舞台表現來探討此主題，藉由分析雪帕的劇作，我們對如何在後現代社會中重新詮釋美國夢有更深一層的瞭解。
本論文分為三個章節。第一章對於美國夢本質的改變作一簡略的縱覽，並探討重要歷史事件對於美國夢的衝擊與現代美國劇作家對美國夢的幻滅。此外，本章節對雪帕的生平、他在美國舞台的崛起及電影工業對他的影響，也作一介紹。
第二章著力於探討雪帕家庭三部曲的最後一部《真的西部》。由於西部向來就是孕育美國夢的溫床，《真的西部》首先質疑傳統對於東方及西方的二元區分。我們所能擁有的僅是各種對西部的不同版本論述，而每個論述則相互競爭意欲取得最終的合法性，然而藉由對語言本質的剖析，我們發現任何追尋「真的西部」的努力都將落空。
最後一章則經由分析《天使之城》一劇探討製造、再製、和散播此一集體潛意識的運作機制。在此齣劇中，我們不難發現在當今社會中螢幕取代了傳統西部在人們心中的地位，空虛的幻影深入了我們生活的每個層面，這些影像重塑了我們的鏡像認同，而雪帕明確地點出此一不斷膨脹的神話後面那雙「看不見的手」及其召喚大眾的魔力。
藉由破除我們習慣性的思維模式，雪帕引領我們進入眾聲喧嘩的世界，同時藉由指出電影夢工廠無遠弗屆的影響力，雪帕也使我們體認出自己的視野受到侷限的事實。雖然雪帕無法跳脫美國文化的束縛，但雪帕精練的語言、原創性的影像以及大量地挪用美國流行文化在在顯示出他破除美國夢迷思的企圖。

Abstract
As a national myth, the American Dream has profoundly influenced American literary works and the transformations of this Dream, to a great extent, reflect the historical contexts of different periods. Therefore, how American writers come to terms with this cultural heritage when the society has undergone a great change becomes a burning issue. Growing under its mesmerizing power, Sam Shepard does not unreservedly accept the Dream. He scrutinizes closely this subject and stages its problematics. By analyzing his plays, we could have a better understanding of the American Dream in this post-modern age.
Briefly, this study is divided into three chapters. The first chapter includes a survey of the changes in the nature of the American Dream. The impacts of several important historical events on the Dream and the dissolution of the modern American playwrights toward it are carefully investigated. A short summary of Shepard’s biography, his emergence on the American stage, and the influence of the film industry on him are all introduced in this chapter.
The second chapter focuses on the last of Shepard’s family trilogy, True West (1980). Since the West has always become the symbolic place where Americans project their unfulfilled dreams, True West first questions the traditional demarcation of the West and the East. What we have is the endless versions of the West and every utterance becomes potentially a site of struggle. By examining the nature of language, this thesis holds that the search for a "True West" is marked by failure because language never transmits transparently.
The last chapter discusses how this collective unconsciousness is manufactured, recycled and disseminated through an analysis of the play, Angel City (1976). In this play, we find the screen has replaced the West as the nurturing bed for the American Dream. Hollow simulacra penetrate all aspects of human life and these bigger-than-life images reframe the multitude's positions of identifications. Shepard makes his audience alert to “the unseen hand” behind this inflated myth and to its power of interpellation.
By obstructing our habitual mode of thinking, Shepard frees us from an idealized American past and brings us into a world of heteroglossia. By laying bare the mechanism of the Dream industry, Shepard indicates our limits but he never feels discouraged. Instead, only by discovering our confinement can we re-examine our present conditions. Though he is unable to abandon his cultural heritage, his deft language, original images and frequent appropriation of American popular culture all exhibit his conscious attempts to voice the experience of the American people and to demystify the American Dream.

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