Identity crisis and its negative effects on individual and familial integration in Sam Shepard's Buried Child

Abstract

From the ancient nation's literature to the modern world literature, identity crisis has been one of the outstanding themes in literature.The post World War II era is considered by critics as the era ofunspoken classifications, festering clashes, and hidden kinds of dissatisfaction and revolution.When the World War II ended many American soldiers rejoined their society while suffering frompsychic pain. Modern American drama, especially "Absurd Theater", considerably covers identity crisis and its effects on both individual and social levels. When American society became increasingly fragmented in the post war years it was mirrored in a fragmented theatre by an increasingly introspective and highly ambiguous drama. Americans' identity crisis is widely depicted in Sam Shepard's dramaturgy. This paper explores identity crisis in  Shepard'sBuried Child. It illustrates how Shepard dramatically portrays postmodern American's dilemma with the paradox of American identity crisis and how the characters' identity problematic issues contribute to the familial disintegration and dissonance of the postmodern American family.