本論文旨在探討彼得．謝弗四部劇《皇家獵日》，《阿瑪迪斯》，《戀馬狂》與《高更的禮物》中神話與儀式等主題。 這四部劇皆呈現兩種衝突性驅力—個人自由意志驅力與社會制度的制約力—即酒神狂喜張力與阿波.羅的理智約束力。 謝弗在這些作品中，透過角色們虔敬崇拜，與神性合一的過程，以及獻祭儀式，集體暴力與認同危機等議題，呈現其形而上的玄學主題。 本論文將應用勒內．吉拉爾的模擬慾望理論以及代罪羊機制理論，探討上述議題。 筆者認為，謝弗意圖透過其創新的劇場機制，帶給觀眾現代版的戲劇淨化；並透過歷史，宗教及古希臘神話，讓觀眾體驗崇拜及儀式帶來的心靈衝擊與洗滌。 同時，本論文亦探討布萊希特與安東尼．亞陶等作家對於謝弗作品的影響，並回顧謝弗與其當代劇作家思想脈絡與劇作呈現的差異。

This study aims to explore the themes of myths and rituals in Peter Shaffer’s four plays: The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964), Amadeus (1979), Equus (1973), and The Gift of the Gorgon (1992), all of which present the confrontations between two conflictive impulses—individual freedom and structured institutionalized mores, namely the Dionysian and the Apollonian forces. Shaffer, in these works, unfolds his metaphysical themes via the characters’ worship of and quest for the union with the divinity as well as sacrificial rituals, collective violence and identity crises. I will discuss these issues mainly by applying René Girard’s theory of mimic desire and the scapegoat mechanism to present Shaffer’s intention of bringing his audience a modern catharsis with his theatrical devices, as well as the impact of worship and rituals that are drawn from histories, religions and Greek mythology. Also studied are the impact of Bertolt Brecht and Antonin Artaud on Shaffer and the difference between Shaffer and his near contemporaries.

Works Cited

Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1999. Print.
Artaud, Antonin. The Theater and Its Double. Trans. Mary Caroline Richards. New York: Grove, 1958. Print.
Baldwin, Helene L. “Equus: Theater of Cruelty or Theater Sensationalism?” West Virginia University Philological Papers 25 (1979): 118-27. Print.
Bidney, Martin. “Thinking About God and Mozart: The Salieris of Puškin and Peter Shaffer.” Slavic and East European Journal 30.2 (1986): 183-95. Print.
Block, Ed. “The Plays of Peter Shaffer and the Mimetic Theory of René Girard.” Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism 19. 1 (2004): 57-78. Print.
Brook, Peter, Peter Hall, Michel St-Denis and Peter Shaffer. “Artaud for Artaud's Sake.” Encore 11 (1964): 20-31. Print.
Chiari, J, D.ès.L. Landmarks of Contemporary Drama. New York: Gordian Press, 1971. Print.
Conroy, Peter V., Jr. “Amadeus on Stage and Screen.” Post Script: Essays in Film and the Humanities 9. 1-2 (1989): 25-37. Print.
Dean, Joan F. “Peter Shaffer's Recurrent Character Type.” Modern Drama 21 (1978): 297-305. Print.
Deemer, Charles. “Amadeus: Fine-Tuning Villainy: Salieri's Journey.” Creative Screenwriting 4.4 (1997): 75-84. Print.
Despotopoulou, Anna. “From Dionysus to Gorgon: Peter Shaffer's Revision of Classical Myth and Theory.” Classical and Modern Literature: A Quarterly 25.1 (2005): 85-97. Print.
Fleming, Chris. René Girard, Violence and Mimesis. Cambridge: Polity, 2004. Print.
Foucault, Michel . History of Sexuality. Ed. Robert Hurley. Vol. 1. New York: Vintage Books, 1990. Print.
Gabbard, Krin. “Updike, Shaffer, and the Centaurs.” Helios 14. 1 (1987): 47-58. Print.
George, Theodore D. “The Disruption of Health: Shaffer, Foucault and ‘The Normal.’” Journal of Medical Humanities 20. 4 (1999). Print.
Gianakaris, C. J. Peter Shaffer: A Casebook. New York: Garland, 1991. Print.
---. Peter Shaffer. New York: St. Martin's, 1992. Print.
---. “A Playwright Looks at Mozart: Peter Shaffer's Amadeus.” Comparative Drama 15.1 (1981): 37-53. Print.
Gillespie, Michael. “Peter Shaffer: “to Make Whatever God There Is.’” Claudel Studies 9.2 (1982): 61-70. Print.
Girard René. Deceit, Desire and the Novel. London: Johns Hopkins UP, 1990. Print.
---. The Scapegoat. Trans. Yvonne Freccero. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1986. Print.
---. A Theater of Envy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
---. Things Hidden Since the Foundatin of the World. Trans. Stemphen Bann (Book II and III), Michael Metter (Book I). London: Continuum, 1978.
---. Violence and the Sacred. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins UP, 1972. Print.
Glazer, Diana. “Richard Wagner—Wunderkind Or Monster?” The Wagner Library. 2002 Web. May 8, 2012. <http://users.belgacom.net/wagnerlibrary/articles/wlar0043.htm>
Glenn, Jules. “Alan Strang as an Adolescent: A Discussion of Peter Shaffer's Equus.” International Journal of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy 5 (1976): 473-87. Print.
---. “Anthony and Peter Shaffer's Plays: The Influence of Twinship on Creativity.” American Imago: A Psychoanalytic Journal for Culture, Science, and the Arts 31 (1974): 270-92. Print.
---. “Twins in Disguise: A Psychoanalytic Essay on Sleuth and The Royal Hunt of the Sun.” Psychoanalytic Quarterly 43.2 (1974). Print.
---. “Twins in Disguise II: Content, Form and Style in Plays by Anthony and Peter Shaffer.” The International Review of Psycho-Analysis 1.3 (1974): 373-81. Print.
---. “Twins in the Theater: A Study of Plays by Peter and Anthony Shaffer.” Blood Brothers: Siblings as Writers. Ed. Norman Kiell. New York: International UP, 1983. 277-99. Print.
Golsan, Richard J. René Girard and Myth. New York & London: Garland Publishing, 1993. Print.
Gray, Martin. A Dictionary of Literary Terms. Harlow: Longman, 1992. Print.
Hamilton, Edith. Mythology. New York: Warner Books, 1942. Print.
Hamilton, James W. “Peter Shaffer's Amadeus as a Further Expression of Twinship Conflict.” American Journal of Psychoanalysis 55.3 (1995): 269-77. Print.
Hansen, William. Handbook of Classical Mythology. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2004. Print.
Hertz, Uri. “Brecht/Artaud.” Third Rail: A Review of International Arts & Literature 5 (1982): 29-35. Print.
Hinden, Michael. “Trying to Like Shaffer.” Comparative Drama 19.1 (1985): 14-29. Print.
---. “When Playwrights Talk to God: Peter Shaffer and the Legacy of O'Neill.” Critical Approaches to O'Neill. Ed. John H. Stroupe. New York: AMS, 1988. 199-213. Print.
Huber, Werner and Hubert Zapf. “On the Structure of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus.” Contemporary British Drama, 1970-90. Eds. Hersh Zeifman and Cynthia Zimmerman. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1993. 62-80. Print.
Innes, Christopher. “Antonin Artaud and the Theatre of Cruelty.” Avant Garde Theatre 1892-1992. London: Routledge, 1993. 59-94. Print.
---. “Peter Shaffer.” Modern British Drama: The Twentieth Century. Cambridge: CUP, 2002. 272-78. Print.
Ituarte, Maite de. “The Royal Hunt of the Sun: Peter Shaffer and the Quest for God.” Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses 3 (1990): 67-75. Print.
Jannarone, Kimberly. “Audience, Mass, Crowd: Theatres of Cruelty in Interwar Europe.” Theatre Journal 61.2 (2009): 191-211. Print.
Jones, Daniel R. “Peter Shaffer's Continued Quest for God in Amadeus.” Comparative Drama 21.2 (1987): 145-55. Print.
Jung, Carl G, ed. Man and His Symbols. New York: Dell Publishing 1964. Print.
Klein, Dennis A. “Amadeus: The Third Part of Peter Shaffer's Dramatic Trilogy.” Modern Language Studies 13.1 (1983): 31-38. Print.
---. Peter Shaffer. New York: Twayne, 1993. Print.
Knapp, Bettinal L. “Antonin Artaud and the Theatre or Cruelty.” Twentieth-Century European Drama. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994. Print.
Lounsberry, Barbara. “‘God-Hunting’: The Chaos of Worship in Peter Shaffer's Equus and Royal Hunt of the Sun.” Modern Drama 21 (1978): 13-28. Print.
---. “Peter Shaffer's Amadeus and Shrivings: God-Hunting Continued.” Theatre Annual: A Journal of Performance Studies 39 (1984): 15-33. Print.
MacMurraugh-Kavanagh, M. K. Peter Shaffer: Theatre and Drama. Houndmills: Macmillan, 1998. Print.
Marks, Tracy, comp. Medusa in Greek Mythology. 1999. Web. 4 Dec. 2011. <http://www.webwinds.com/thalassa/medusa.htm>.
Mobley, Jonnie Patricia. NTC’s Dictionary of Theatre and Drama Terms. Lincolnwood: NTC, 1992. Print.
Murray, Alexander S. Who's Who in Mythology. London: Bracken Books, 1995. Print.
Mustazza, Leonard. “A Jealous God: Ritual and Judgment in Shaffer's Equus.” Papers on Language and Literature: A Journal for Scholars and Critics of Language and Literature 28.2 (1992): 174-84. Print.
“Naked stage role for Potter star.” BBC News. 28 July 2006. Web. 04 Dec. 2011 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5223520.stm>
“Otaku.” Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. 30 Nov. 2011 Web. 04 Dec. 2011 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otaku>
“Peter Shaffer.” Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. 16 Nov. 2011. Web. 04 Dec. 2011
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Shaffer >
“pharmākos.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 09 Mar. 2011. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/685818/pharmakos>
Plunka, Gene A. Peter Shaffer: Roles, Rites, and Rituals in the Theater. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 1988. Print.
---. “Roles, Rites, and Rituals: Peter Shaffer’s The Royal Hunt of the Sun.” Ball State University Forum 27.3 (1986): 71-79. Print.
Podol, Peter L. “Contradictions and Dualities in Artaud and Artaudian Theater: The Conquest of Mexico and the Conquest of Peru.” Modern Drama 26.4 (1983): 518-27. Print.
Renner, Stanley. “The Lawrentian Power and Logic of Equus.” D. H. Lawrence's Literary Inheritors. Ed. Keith Cushman and Dennis Jackson. New York: St. Martin's, 1991. 31-45. Print.
Rice, Julian C. “Equus and the Jungian ‘True’ Symbol.” International Journal of Symbology 1976: 61. Print.
Shaffer, Peter. Amadeus. New York: Perennial, 2001. Print.
---. “The Cannibal Theater.” The Atlantic Monthly (1960): 48-50. Print.
---. Equus. New York: Scribner, 2005. Print.
---. “Equus: Playwright Peter Shaffer Interprets its Ritual.” Vogue 165 (Feb 1975): 136, 192. Print.
---. The Gift of the Gorgon. London: Viking, 1993. Print.
---. “Labels aren’t for Playwrights.” Theatre Arts (1960): 20-21. Print.
---. “Making the Film Speak.” Film Comment 20.5 (1984): 50-57. Print.
---. The Royal Hunt of the Sun. Houndmills: Longman, 1991. Print.
Simard, Rodney. “Peter Shaffer: Epic Psychoquester.” Postmodern Drama: Contemporary Playwrights in America and Britain. Lanham: America, 1984. 99-115. Print.
Slutzky, Jacob E. “Equus and the Psychopathology of Passion.” International Journal of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy 5 (1976): 489-500. Print.
Sontag, Susan. Antonin Artaud, Selected Writings. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976. Print.
Stacy, James R. “The Sun and the Horse: Peter Shaffer's Search for Worship.” Peter Shaffer: A Casebook Ed. C.J. Gianakaris. New York: Garland, 1001. 95-111 Print.
Stamm, Julian L. “Peter Shaffer's Equus—a Psychoanalytic Exploration.” International Journal of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy 5 (1976): 449-61. Print.
Sullivan, William J. “Peter Shaffer's Amadeus: The Making and Un-Making of the Fathers.” American Imago: Studies in Psychoanalysis and Culture 45.1 (1988): 45-60. Print.
Tibbetts, John C. “Faces and Masks: Peter Shaffer's Amadeus from Stage to Screen.” Literature Film Quarterly 32.3 (2004): 166-74. Print.
Walls, Doyle W. “Equus: Shaffer, Nietzsche, and the Neuroses of Health.” Modern Drama 27.3 (1984): 314-23. Print.
Williams, James G., ed. The Girard Reader. New York: Crossroad Herder, 1996. Print.