Materialism and the deteriorated American family : a Baudrillardian reading of Edward Albee's the American dream

Abstract EN

Terms like "anguish", “void”, “dehumanization”, "estrangement" and "nothingness" have become, if not household words, at least basic to the jargon of the literature that describes socio-economic realities.

Twentieth century American drama is highly preoccupied with the impact of material life on the individual.

It describes the amount of fissure and the damaging cracks in the US family due to the consumerist tradition.

Edward Albee's The American Dream is glaring example of what might be called a textbook case of the response of the American drama to this existential vacuum.

This article offers a Baudrillardian reading of Albee's magnum opus.

Considering materialism as the hyper-real which substitutes the real values, the aim of this scrutiny is to highlight its negative effects on family, society, and the American dream.