Myth as an Underlying Structure in Sam Shepard's Buried Child

Abstract

This research study basically analyses Shepard's traditional playBuried Child so as to shed light on mythical elements of the play. It is apparent that exploitation of mythic elements in literary works has become a dominant vogue in contemporary literary tradition. Shepard, too, could not remain untouched by it. So, he employs the Vegetation Myth of the Corn-King and the Myth of the Holy Grail to form the underlying structure of the play. The main aim of exploiting these mythic elements is to show the potentiality of regeneration in degenerative contemporary American society. Thus, this study attempts to show how these two myths are exploited to prevent the society from sterility and barrenness, and how repressed violence and strangling behaviour pass down to the latest generation.