Abstract

This paper is an attempt to apply Jacques Derrida’s theory of Deconstruction to American Dream and its treatment in the language of Edward Albee’s play American Dream and other American Playwrights. Different deconstructive terms have been applied to understand and analyze the language of Albee’s The American Dream. Deconstructive terms; Différance, Erasure and Aporia have been applied to the language used by Albee to analyze the concept of American dream and its relation to its context of old American Dream as envisaged by the founding fathers and the new American Dream as defined by James Truslow Adams. These deconstructive terms will help readers to understand the themes and language of postmodern and post war American drama in general and those of Albee’s in particular. This, in turn, makes the reader realize that American dream as depicted in modern American Playwrights is materialistic, illogical, futile and bizarre: Albee’s play reflects modern American society and its sensibility. Language of modern is simple yet it communicates multi-faceted interpretations and those interpretations have been explored in the light of all these deconstructive terms. The basic purpose of involving these deconstructive terms in analyzing the language of Albee’s The American Dream and the other major postmodern American plays is not only to understand the mutability and fluidity in the diction but also to expose absurdity and apparent meaninglessness in it.

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