Where Are the Men? — The Masculine Crises in Buried Child

Abstract

Concentrating on the masculine crises in Buried Child by American playwright Sam
Shepard, the paper dissects causes of the crises and provides possible solutions to them. It finds
that male characters in the play endeavor to maintain their hegemonic masculinities, but they are
traumatized in the fights of power and production and ignored regarding emotion, and hence fall
into the collapsed masculinities. Evasion and limited confession are not the thorough solution to
the collapsed masculinities. Confrontation and resolute change are the only way to address the
crises.