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Rebirth or Relapse: Subversion of Myth in Shephard’s Buried Child
JIANG Yi-ling, LI Jian-min
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2022.11.004
South China Business College, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China
American playwright Shepard’s plays are known for their open endings. The ending of Shepard’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play-Buried Child is intriguing. Some critics see this ending as a sign of the rebirth of American families and the revival of American dream. But this article stands on the opposite position to give a negative answer to Haile’s “That may be the sun” (Shephard, 1981, p. 66) at the end of the play through illustrating Shephard’s authorization and subversion of two important myths in the play, which is a way of parody in postmodern theory. By digging the family scandals and corruption of American families in the play, it is expressed that perhaps the natural world has a chance to be reborn, but not human society under the pathetic and corruptive social background.
parody, subversion, myth, buried child
Journal of Literature and Art Studies, November 2022, Vol. 12, No. 11, 1114-1118
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