Synopses & Reviews
Perfect for students of English Literature, Theatre Studies and American Studies at college and university, The Theatre of Tennessee Williams provides a lucid and stimulating analysis of Willams' dramatic work by one of America's leading scholars. With the centennial of his birth celebrated amid a flurry of conferences devoted to his work in 2011, and his plays a central part of any literature and drama curriculum and uibiquitous in theatre repertoires, he remains a giant of twentieth century literature and drama.
In Brenda Murphy's major study of his work she examines his life and career and provides an analysis of more than a score of his key plays, including in-depth studies of major works such as A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and others. She traces the artist figure who features in many of Williams' play to broaden the discussion beyond the normal reference points.
As with other volumes in Methuen Drama's Critical Companions series, this book features too essays by Bruce McConachie, John S. Bak, Felicia Hardison Londré and Annette Saddik, offering perspectives on different aspects of Williams' work that will assist students in their own critical thinking.
Synopsis
The Theatre of Tennessee Williams provides a stimulating analysis of the work of this giant of twentieth century American theatre whose work remains central to curriculums and theatre repertoires. It combines an analysis of all of his work by American scholar Brenda Murphy with interviews and a number of criticial essays.
About the Author
Brenda Murphy is the Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, USA. Besides her many books and articles on American theatre, she is the editor of the Student Edition of After the Fall by Arthur Miller (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2011).
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
1 The 1930s Plays:
The Magic Tower,
Candles to the Sun,
Fugitive Kind,
Not About Nightingales,
Spring Storm,
Stairs to the Roof
2
Battle of Angels and
Orpheus Descending
3
The Glass Menagerie
4
Summer and Smoke and
Eccentricities of a Nightingale
5
A Streetcar Named Desire
6
Camino Real
7
Cat on Hot Tin Roof
8
Suddenly Last Summer and
Sweet Bird of Youth
9
The Night of the Iguana
10 The Later Plays, 1961-1983:
The Two-Character Play/Outcry,
The Gnädiges Fräulein,
Clothes for a Summer Hotel,
The Mutilated,
Small Craft Warnings,
Vieux Carré,
Something Cloudy, Something Clear
11. Critical Perspectives
All in the timing: the meanings of
Streetcar in 1947 and 1951 by Bruce McConachie (University of Pittsburgh, USA)
A broken romance: Tennessee Williams and Americas mid-century theatre culture by John S. Bak (Université de Lorraine, France)
‘A vast traumatic eye: culture absorbed and refigured in Tennessee Williamss transitional plays by Felicia Hardison Londré (University of Missouri, Kansas City, USA)
‘Theres something not natural here: grotesque ambiguities in
Kingdom of Earth,
A Cavalier for Milady, and
A House Not Meant to Stand by Annette Saddik (City University of New York, USA)
Chronology
Further reading
Index
Notes on contributors