Tennessee Williams' Plays

This book identifies a recurrent structural pattern in Tennessee Williams' plays that lends organic integrity to their evocations of memory, myth, and symbol. Judith J. Thompson examines the evolution of a pattern of mythic recollection and existential reenactment in seventeen Williams plays from its most successful realization in The Glass Menagerie through The Night of the Iguana to its parody in A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur and explores the significance of the pattern to Williams' larger-than-life-size characters, his nostalgic ambience, and his tragicomic vision. By reference to Jungian psychology, existentialist philosophy, and Northrop Frye's schema of literary archetypes, this critical study demonstrates how Williams' drama imparts «mythic significance to modern secular experience.»

Autorentext

The Author: Judith J. Thompson is a former lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Kansas, where she received her Ph.D. Her 1982 doctoral dissertation on Williams, which serves as the basis of this book, was awarded the university s Dorothy Haglund Prize for the year s outstanding dissertation. Dr. Thompson is a contributor to Tennessee Williams: A Tribute and to its abridged version, Tennessee Williams: 13 Essays. A former high school teacher, she co-authored an article in The Black American in Books for Children and has also published play reviews and poetry.

Klappentext

This book identifies a recurrent structural pattern in Tennessee Williams plays that lends organic integrity to their evocations of memory, myth, and symbol. Judith J. Thompson examines the evolution of a pattern of mythic recollection and existential reenactment in seventeen Williams plays from its most successful realization in The Glass Menagerie through The Night of the Iguana to its parody in A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur and explores the significance of the pattern to Williams larger-than-life-size characters, his nostalgic ambience, and his tragicomic vision. By reference to Jungian psychology, existentialist philosophy, and Northrop Frye s schema of literary archetypes, this critical study demonstrates how Williams drama imparts «mythic significance to modern secular experience.»