POSTMODERN REIMAGINING OF THE OEDIPUS MYTH IN SAM SHEPARD’S BURIED CHILD AND A PARTICLE OF DREAD
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18485/bells.2024.16.18Keywords:
Sam Shepard, postmodernism, the Oedipus myth, Greek tragedy, family curseAbstract
In his dramaturgical work, Sam Shepard often explores the tragedy of a family life fraught with ineffectual patriarchy, dysfunctional familial relations, and cursed genealogy. Family discourse as the focal point of a tragedy is reminiscent of the Greek tragic canon, most notably the myth of Oedipus. Oedipal themes are present in Shepard’s Buried Child and A Particle of Dread, which is a direct adaptation of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex. This paper will address the postmodern reinterpretation of myths from the standpoint of theorists such as Linda Hutcheon and Roland Barthes, and the two plays will be compared to the Sophoclean precursor regarding the inexorability of fate, the “curse on the house” motif, rituals of pollution and purification, and cultural and familial collapse.
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