SOURCE: ";Sam Shepard's Buried Child: The Ironic Use of Folklore,"; in Modern Drama, Vol. XXVI, No. 4, December, 1983, pp. 486-91.

In the essay below, Nash finds that Shepard utilizes elements of traditional folklore in Buried Child, creating ";a modern version of the central theme of Western mythology, the death and rebirth of the Corn King. ";

Although Sam Shepard's Buried Child won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for drama, this eerie and provocative story continues to baffle critics and audiences alike—at least those who have not done their homework in folklore and anthropology. Buried Child, like the famous Shirley Jackson short story ";The Lottery,"; borrows heavily from the images and motifs found in Sir James Frazer's The Golden Bough. Those who do not see the hand of the anthropologist in Shepard's play—and there are surprisingly many who write review columns—have called Buried Child ";an American gothic comedy"; or ";a...