Sam Shepard: Cultural and Biographical Contexts

Sam Shepard (1943-) is widely regarded as one of the greatest contemporary American playwrights. The present paper aims at investigating the cultural and the biographical contexts in which Shepard's plays, Curse of the Starving Class and Buried Child, were produced.  Noteworthy, these plays are two of Shepard's "family trilogy". The cultural context of the Sixties aims at investigating the socio-economic, political, historical forces that produced these plays. The Cultural Materialist Approach and Psychobiography were employed as critical methodologies. In both plays, Shepard gives a voice to the poor, youth and women, incarnating their psychological disorders and traumas in the postmodern world.  As for the biographical context, it  plays a vital role in making connections between the playwright and his works; such an approach is so-called "psychobiography". Examining Shepard's infantile experiences has proven to have their fundamental influence in fueling and enriching his dramatic output. Examining the cultural and the biographical contexts has proven useful in shedding light on the intricate relation between the artist and his works.
Key terms: Sam Shepard, Cultural Materialism, Feminist Criticism, Psychobiography.