A Comparative Psychoanalytic study of Sam Shepard’s A Lie of The Mind and Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie
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Date
2025
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi Ouzou
Abstract
This dissertation examines the intricate relationship between Literature and the human psyche, explores the thematic and structural parallels between Sam Shepard’s A Lie of the Mind and Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie, focusing on themes of trauma, the past, and the compulsion to repeat, and fragmented narratives, as portrayed by these two prominent American playwrights, through a detailed analysis of their works. The study investigates the psychological foundations of these plays by drawing on psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud, In particular, it analyzes the characters’ psychological disturbances rooted in their pasts experiences. With attention to Shepard’s personal struggles reflected in A Lie of the Mind, By comparing the psychological landscapes of Shepard and William, this dissertation applies Freud’s framework of the pleasure principle versus the reality principle to interpret the characters’ psychological struggles and aims to illuminate the complexities of familial relationships and the enduring impact of trauma in American literature.
Description
58p. ; (+CD-Rom)
Keywords
Human psyche, past, compulsion to repeat, Trauma, Reality Vs pleasure principles, Characters analysis
Citation
Literature and Interdisiplinary Approches