@article{article_875957, title={LANGUAGE AND VIOLENCE IN EDWARD ALBEE’S ’THE AMERICAN DREAM’}, journal={International Journal of Media Culture and Literature}, volume={7}, pages={79–98}, year={2021}, author={Karaalioğlu, Ayşe Gülsüm}, keywords={Family, Language, Violence, Existentialism}, abstract={Family dysfunction has been a recurrent dramatic theme which has attracted a great deal of attention in both the modern and the postmodern era. In an unfortunate sort of way, most of the families in the 20th century plays are unable to function the way they are supposed to. The family members to whom the audience is introduced lack the ability to attain peace and harmony; they are entangled in a seemingly endless struggle for power and control; and, at times, it gets closer to a Machiavellian world where one pitilessly deceives the other, following a series of dishonest strategies and tactics. Alps on alps arise when one can find no single character who might be referred to as an ‘ideal person’, as ‘an example of who and what individuals should all aspire to be’. Being in the presence of the others, being with the other human beings, which is the actual basis of social life, is what becomes problematic as an existentiale. Hell is nothing, but being with the other or the others, in Jean Paul Sartre’s terms. The apparently stuck characters, who struggle to acquire an identity by avoiding victimization and nothingness, are not able to move forward in the existential hell of self-conscious paralysis. Moreover, due to the disappearance of individualism in a mechanized and standardized society, individuals tend to show extreme kind of behaviours. The old and honest American Dream is replaced by a new society concerned with consumerism; and, as a matter of fact, ‘language and violence’ comes to the forefront as an important point worthy of attention. The issue of verbal violence, which revolves around statements with negative connotations, brings with itself domestic problems waiting to be solved. The actions, reactions and interactions, which stand in stark contrast to the socially acceptable norms and values, are important, as they constitute the material to dig and delve deep into the deeds done for dominance, and as they are rich enough materials to bring out the diversions from the ideal family picture. This study focuses on one of Edward Albee’s most famous works, ’The American Dream’, examines the family, the paradoxical union, as portrayed in a modern wasteland, and explains the forms and consequences of violence, most specifically the verbal violence.}, number={1}, publisher={Istanbul Aydin University}