The Destruction of the American Dream in Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class

Authors : Sinan AKILLI

Pages : 47-57

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Publication Date : 2004-04-01

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :There has always been a tendency in literary criticism to categorize works into strictly-defined compartments depending merely on the ‘form’ and ‘content’ of the individual ‘text.’ Such a tendency, however, disregards the inherent relationship of exchange existing between the ‘text’ and the ‘context,’ that is the social, cultural, and political reality out of and into which the literary text is born, thereby pre-determining and limiting the possible horizons of interpretation of the text in question. To some extent, Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class, first staged in London in 1977, has been a victim of such disregard, and under the influence of the same attitude its general reception has been merely as a ‘family play.’ The aim of this article, on the other hand, is to relate the ‘text’ of the play to its larger ‘context’ and argue that Curse, as well as being a ‘family play,’ is an illustration of the destruction of the ‘American Dream’ in the American family.
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