Curse of the Starving Class
E231454
Curse of the Starving Class is a darkly comic, psychologically intense stage play by Sam Shepard that explores the disintegration of a dysfunctional American family struggling with poverty, identity, and the elusive promise of the American Dream.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Curse of the Starving Class canonical | 4 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2081325 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Curse of the Starving Class Context triple: [Sam Shepard, notableWork, Curse of the Starving Class]
-
A.
The Great Commoner
The Great Commoner was the popular nickname of William Pitt the Elder, a prominent 18th-century British statesman celebrated for his leadership during the Seven Years' War and his advocacy for parliamentary reform.
-
B.
L'Extinction du paupérisme
L'Extinction du paupérisme is a political and social treatise proposing measures to eliminate poverty in 19th-century France.
-
C.
Ripaille
Ripaille is a historic lakeside château and former monastic estate on the southern shore of Lake Geneva in Thonon-les-Bains, France, known for its association with the Dukes of Savoy and later wine production.
-
D.
City of Workers
"City of Workers" is a nickname for Lawrence, Massachusetts, reflecting its historic role as a major industrial mill city with a large working-class population.
-
E.
De Gemeene Gratie
De Gemeene Gratie is a major theological work by Abraham Kuyper that develops his doctrine of “common grace,” explaining how God’s grace operates in all of culture and society, not only within the church.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Curse of the Starving Class Target entity description: Curse of the Starving Class is a darkly comic, psychologically intense stage play by Sam Shepard that explores the disintegration of a dysfunctional American family struggling with poverty, identity, and the elusive promise of the American Dream.
-
A.
The Great Commoner
The Great Commoner was the popular nickname of William Pitt the Elder, a prominent 18th-century British statesman celebrated for his leadership during the Seven Years' War and his advocacy for parliamentary reform.
-
B.
L'Extinction du paupérisme
L'Extinction du paupérisme is a political and social treatise proposing measures to eliminate poverty in 19th-century France.
-
C.
Ripaille
Ripaille is a historic lakeside château and former monastic estate on the southern shore of Lake Geneva in Thonon-les-Bains, France, known for its association with the Dukes of Savoy and later wine production.
-
D.
City of Workers
"City of Workers" is a nickname for Lawrence, Massachusetts, reflecting its historic role as a major industrial mill city with a large working-class population.
-
E.
De Gemeene Gratie
De Gemeene Gratie is a major theological work by Abraham Kuyper that develops his doctrine of “common grace,” explaining how God’s grace operates in all of culture and society, not only within the church.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (41)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
American play
ⓘ
dark comedy ⓘ dramatic work ⓘ stage play ⓘ |
| author | Sam Shepard ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| dramaticStructure | three-act play ⓘ |
| explores |
disillusionment with the American Dream
ⓘ
generational trauma ⓘ the impact of capitalism on family life ⓘ |
| featuresCharacter |
Ella
ⓘ
Emma ⓘ Wesley ⓘ Weston ⓘ |
| firstProductionLocation |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| focusesOn | a lower-middle-class American family ⓘ |
| genre |
black comedy
ⓘ
drama ⓘ family drama ⓘ |
| hasSubject |
alcoholism
ⓘ
domestic conflict ⓘ economic exploitation ⓘ land ownership and foreclosure ⓘ rural American life ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTheme |
disintegration of the American family
ⓘ
dysfunctional family dynamics ⓘ economic struggle ⓘ identity ⓘ poverty ⓘ The American Dream ⓘ
surface form:
the American Dream
|
| partOf |
Buried Child
ⓘ
surface form:
Sam Shepard family trilogy
|
| relatedWork |
Buried Child
ⓘ
True West ⓘ |
| setting | a rundown farmhouse in the American West ⓘ |
| settingPeriod | 20th century ⓘ |
| style | blend of realism and surreal elements ⓘ |
| symbolism | use of animals and food as symbols of need and desire ⓘ |
| tone |
darkly comic
ⓘ
psychologically intense ⓘ |
| writer | Sam Shepard ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Curse of the Starving Class Description of subject: Curse of the Starving Class is a darkly comic, psychologically intense stage play by Sam Shepard that explores the disintegration of a dysfunctional American family struggling with poverty, identity, and the elusive promise of the American Dream.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Sam Shepard