Spectral Project of the American Modernity: the Case of Sam Shepard s Buried Child

This paper addresses the unfinished project of modernity and its spectral trace in Sam Shepard s Buried Child in the light of trauma theories to lay bare the ongoing trauma which dominates the play. The Buried Child is a miniature of what was occurring everywhere in America: that individual disconnection which led to social anarchy. Buried Child offers a powerful dramatic metaphor for both the corruption of the American spirit and the hope for its salvation. In an assertively ordinary Midwestern farmhouse, what would otherwise be an all-American family is marked by spiritual and physical decay. Shepard displays a traumatized American family which is the archetype of American modernity and this paper examines the family s failure due to traumatized experiences. This paper will address the research question to explore the workings of deflating American project of modernity based on theories of trauma.