Exploring Destructive Patriarchy and Subversive Ideological Forces in Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class (1977) and Buried Child (1978)

Mechta Amina; Kaced Assia

Article Details

Exploring Destructive Patriarchy and Subversive Ideological Forces in Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class (1977) and Buried Child (1978)

Authors:

Mechta Amina | Kaced Assia

Publisher:

Université de Tissemsilt

Journal:

المعيار Vol.16 Issue 1, pp.666-680

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

6/2025

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

2001470413

pISSN:

2602-6376

Keywords:

Abstract:

 The present article explores the theme of destructive patriarchal authority and patriarchy’s disruptive ideological forces  in Sam Shepard’s plays Curse of the Starving Class (1977) and Buried Child  (1978)) in the light of Louis Althusser’s theory of ideology and Roland Barthes’ semiotic theory of myth. It investigates how the failure father figures, Weston in Curse of the Starving Class and Dodge in Buried Child   are exerting violence and destructive authority to compensate for their inability to meet the social, economic and cultural assumptions. This article reveals the way the fathers’ oppressive authority has contributed to family disintegration, identity crises, and alienation. It uncovers the deceitful ideological nature of American established foundational myths, which in reality are based on ideological domination and masked as universal truths.

Article Details

Authors: Mechta Amina | Kaced Assia

Publisher: Université de Tissemsilt

Journal: المعيار Vol.16 Issue 1, pp.666-680

Document Type: Article

Publication Date: 6/2025

Document Language: English

Document ID (Org No.): 2001470413

pISSN: 2602-6376

Issues

Authors:

Mechta Amina | Kaced Assia

Publisher:

Université de Tissemsilt

Journal:

المعيار Vol.16 Issue 1, pp.666-680

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

6/2025

Document Language:

English

Document ID (Org No.):

2001470413

pISSN:

2602-6376