The Sense of Loss: Postmodern Fragmented Identity in Three Plays of Sam Shepard

Abstract

Sam Shepard is one of the foremost living American Playwrights. He has always been concerned with the problem of identity, specifically the fragmented identity of man living in the postmodern era. Such characterization is evident in his plays: <em>True West</em>, <em>Fool for Love</em>, and <em>A Lie of the Mind</em>. Thus, the present article is to demonstrate the fragmented identity of Lee and Austin, Eddie and May, and Jake and Beth, in the three plays respectively. Fredric Jameson asserts that the reason for the fragmented identity is lack of any coherent relationship with the past. The mentioned characters are depicted as being lost in the perpetual images, with no clear bond to past.