An exploration into the influence of the noh and kabuki on the late plays of Tennesee Williams and the impact his friendship with Yukio Mishima had on his work.

Tennessee Williams, Paul Ibell (2016) London: Reaktion Books, 192 pp., ISBN: 9781780236629, p/bk, $19

Диссертация посвящена проблеме установления эквивалентности перевода оригиналу пьесы Теннесси Уильямса «A Streetcar Named Desire» на основе текстовой категории тональности. Были проанализированы реплики главных персонажей на основании сопоставления маркеров текстовой категории по параметрам набора, комбинаторики, размещения. На основании информации поля тональности и подсчётов эквивалентности были сделаны выводы о творческом своеобразии перевода В. Неделина и его интерпретации подлинника. / This master’s thesis studies the problem of establishing the equivalence of the translation to the original play “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams based on the textual category of tonality. The lines of the main characters were analyzed based on the comparison of the textual category markers by the parameters of the set, combinatorics and placement. According to the information of the tonality fields and equivalence calculations, conclusions about creative originality of V. Nedelin’s translation and his interpretation of the original were drawn.

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Although Amanda Wingfield, Blanche DuBois, and Maggie Pollitt are examined frequently in scholarship on Tennessee Williams's plays, many critics assume that the three women's Southern femininity translates to fragility and that their nostalgia for the Confederate past constitutes delusion. Distancing our perceptions of the three women from the common connotations of Southern femininity--frailty, selflessness, and domesticity—and leaning into the more disagreeable facets of Lost Cause nostalgia reveals the classist and racist ideologies that motivate their quests for upstanding Southern aristocratic lives. Critics have been slow to read Amanda, Blanche, and Maggie as rational socioeconomic actors, but this reading emphasizes the three women's socioeconomic desires, thus de-romanticizing Southern femininity and expounding on its problematic ideological positionalities. Blanche DuBois, Amanda Wingfield, and Maggie Pollitt have been evaluated in terms of their "monstrous" femininity. However, they become less monstrous and more familiar when we recognize the clear race- and class-based motivations for clinging so fiercely to their Southern identities. When we assume that their Southernness is defined by their literal proximity from and ideological relationships to ethnic and racial Others and people from lower socioeconomic classes, their motivations lose some of their critical abstraction and gain a new level of complexity. / Master of Arts / Tennessee Williams is known for crafting complex female protagonists in his dramas. Although Amanda Wingfield of The Glass Menagerie, Blanche DuBois of A Streetcar Named Desire, and Maggie Pollitt of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof are examined frequently in scholarship on Tennessee Williams's plays, many critics assume that the three women's Southern femininity stems from inherent fragility and that their nostalgia for the Confederate past constitutes mental instability. Reorienting our perceptions of these women away from the common connotations of Southern femininity--frailty, selflessness, and domesticity—and leaning into the more disagreeable facets of Lost Cause nostalgia reveals the classist and racist ideologies that motivate the three women's quests for upstanding Southern aristocratic lives. Critics have been slow to read Amanda, Blanche, and Maggie as rational socioeconomic actors, but this reading emphasizes the three women's socioeconomic desires, thus de-romanticizing Southern femininity and expounding on its problematic ideological positionalities—namely, extreme racism and classism. Although Blanche DuBois, Amanda Wingfield, and Maggie Pollitt have been evaluated previously in terms of their "monstrous" femininity, they become less monstrous and more familiar when we recognize the clear race- and class-based motivations for clinging so fiercely to their Southern identities. When we assume that their Southernness is defined by their literal proximity from and ideological relationships to ethnic and racial Others and people from lower socioeconomic classes, their motivations become more tangible, more complex—and more menacing.

ABSTRACT This project compares and contrasts the ways in which selected texts by William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams render their fictional figures as modern subjects engaged in the complex processes of identity-formation and transformation. These processes are deeply rooted within the context of the American South. The interrelatedness of identity and language is explored by investigating how these texts dramatize selfhood not as an essential or homogenous state, but as a perpetual process of self-fashioning and play amid multiple positionings. The central hypothesis is that identity manifests itself necessarily and continuously as a textual discourse in and through language, and that self-fashioning gives rise to ethical questions, because identity involves not only the subject’s relation to the self, but also his or her relationships with others in closely interwoven personal, familial and communal-cultural bonds. This ethical dimension underscores the relational aspects of selfhood, that is, the notion that the individual is always situated inextricably within the social, and that the fashioning of the self is thus inconceivable without a consideration of the other. The following pairs of texts are compared: As I Lay Dying and The Glass Menagerie; The Sound and the Fury and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof; Light in August and A Streetcar Named Desire.

Cette thèse se propose d'appréhender le parcours du dramaturge américain Tennessee Williams en démontrant qu'il existe une authentique dimension engagée dans son œuvre. Ceci va à l'encontre de la critique traditionnelle qui tend à le dépeindre comme l'homme de la nostalgie et du rêve, le dramaturge apolitique du désir et des passions, en faisant abstraction du contexte idéologique. Or, Williams a commencé sa carrière dans les années trente comme écrivain protestataire en produisant de violentes pièces de dénonciation dans la tradition du théâtre de gauche. L'analyse de ces pièces écrites entre 1936 et 1938 – Candles to the Sun, Fugitive Kind, Spring Storm et Not About Nightingales – permet de rendre intelligible le parcours d'un dramaturge qui s'est toujours défini comme un révolutionnaire et revendique sa conscience sociale comme l'élément déterminant de son œuvre. Dans ces pièces, il intègre les stratégies formelles du théâtre de gauche comme le réalisme révolutionnaire ou l'esthétique du Front Populaire tout en créant des œuvres atypiques qui se distinguent de la production de l'époque. Préférant l'ambiguïté à des messages clairs ou didactiques, il inscrit ses premiers écrits sous le signe de la non clôture et joue avec les mécanismes identificatoires. Théâtre de l'émotionnel, son théâtre parait être à l'opposé de celui de Brecht. Pourtant son impact est souvent remarquablement similaire. C'est finalement en théorisant le phénomène des identifications fluctuantes que l'on peut comprendre la manière dont Williams s'approprie les fondements du théâtre de Brecht en en transposant les structures stéréoscopiques. Ceci nous conduit à redéfinir l'engagement au théâtre. / The object of my thesis is to reconsider the critical studies on Tennessee Williams by focusing on the political dimension of his early work. This is done by analysing the protest plays he wrote in the 1930s: Candles to the Sun, Fugitive Kind, Spring Storm and Not about Nightingales. These seminal plays reveal a virtually unknown Tennessee Williams, committed to fighting social injustice. This discovery is all the more important as the dramatist is often portrayed as an apolitical writer and described as a poet of the flesh and a depictor of sexual instincts and conflicts. This approach challenges the conventional vision of Williams' literary ambitions by showing that he may have been more socially and even politically subversive than generally admitted. A careful reading of Williams’s plays written in the thirties reveals that he closely followed the developments of left-wing theatre both in the choice of his subjects and of dramaturgical forms such as revolutionary realism or the aesthetics of the Popular Front. Still, he created original plays that went far beyond rigid formulaes or predictable plots. Because they propose no clearcut message, and through their permeating ambiguity and the feelings of empathy they trigger, these plays radically differ from the other productions of the period. Williams’ theatre could be described as a theatre of emotions at the opposite of Brecht’s theatre of alienation. However its impact is often remarkably similar. This can be explained by the phenomenon of fluctuating identifications that is Williams’s way of absorbing Brecht’s stereoscopic structures. This leads us to redefine the very principles of commitment in the theatre.

I performed the role of Brick Pollitt at Lake Mirror Theatre in Lakeland, Florida from April 20- April 30 2006. The role of Brick Pollitt provided me with several acting challenges as well as multiple subjects to research. The most challenging aspects of portraying the character of Brick Pollitt are his alcoholism, issues of sexuality, and tormented familial relationships. Brick Pollitt journeys in the period of one day through major challenges in two key relationships. He moves from dominance in his relationship with Maggie to capitulation and from isolation in his relationship with Big Daddy to mutual understanding. Brick's relationships are further complicated by questions surrounding his recently deceased best friend Skipper and drives (alcoholism) that may be perceived as self destructive. My preliminary work has led me to believe Brick is in search of peace ('the click') in a tormented life (Williams, Cat 2.47). The nature of the torment needs further research for definition. Some critics argue Brick's sexuality is ambivalent, and he is repressing homosexual drives. Equally possible is arguing the homosexuality was restricted to Skipper. Making a decision about the definition of this relationship is key to making choices within the play because the friendship was so important to Brick's perception of himself. Brick believed his relationship was the "one true and pure thing" in a life filled with "mendacity" (Williams, Cat 2.50). 'Mendacity' is Bricks reference to his disgust with "lyin' an' liars' (Williams, Cat 2.50-51). He is lost without this anchor for his life and it has impacted his ability to interact with the world around him. Determining Brick's sexuality in my portrayal will be central to my process while I also embrace research into related areas of behavior. To supplement my research of alcoholism and Brick's sexuality, the following topics: -A Psycho-Analytical study of the character Brick Pollitt and his "archetypal" relationships with Maggie, Big Daddy, Skipper, Gooper, and his place in society. -The evolution of the character Brick Pollitt through various scripts and screenplays. From Williams's first script through to dealing with the Hays Code. A study of Tennessee Williams life history and the influence on the play. -The history of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof from its Morosco Theatre Broadway debut in New York City on March 24, 1955, followed by its film release in 1955 starring Paul Newman, Burl Ives, and Elizabeth Taylor. Any successful portrayal of Brick Pollitt in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof demands intense focus to individual relationships within the ensemble. The central theme of the play is 'mendacity' (deceit) (Williams, Cat 2.50). Brick uses this word to describe his disgust, but the 'mendacity' of his human relations in the aging and decaying Southern society is what troubles him (Williams, Cat 2.50). Discovering the ties between family, 'mendacity', and society are relevant to the execution of the play (Williams, Cat 2.50). I believe depiction of Brick Pollitt in this Pulitzer Prize winning American Classic will best present my abilities achieved in the Master of Fine Arts Program

A presente dissertação se propõe a traçar o desenvolvimento do Expressionismo desde sua origem na Alemanha da década de 1910 até o teatro estadunidense da década de 1920, assim como a influência desse movimento de vanguarda na obra do dramaturgo americano do pósguerra, Tennessee Williams. Para esse fim, a relação entre artes visuais, teatro, literatura e cinema é apresentada, definindo essa dissertação no campo dos Estudos Interdisciplinares. A análise será principalmente enfocada nas peças expressionistas americanas da década de 1920 dos dramaturgos Eugene O'Neill, Susan Glaspell, Elmer Rice e Sophie Treadwell, e em quatro peças de Tennessee Williams e suas respectivas versões fílmicas: The Glass Menagerie (1944), Orpheus Descending (1957), Suddenly Last Summer (1958) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1947). Primeiramente, serão apresentadas as origens do Expressionismo na Alemanha na década de 1910 para definir as características do movimento. Posteriormente, serão identificadas características expressionistas no teatro, literatura e cinema estadunidense da década de 1920. Por fim, será verificada a influência do movimento expressionista na obra de Tennessee Williams, tanto em suas peças quanto nas versões fílmicas. O objetivo dessa dissertação é provar a ligação entre a obra de Tennessee Williams e as peças de dramaturgos expressionistas estadunidenses anteriores, assim como discutir a inter-relação e o aspecto colaborativo entre artes visuais, teatro, literatura e cinema. / The aim of this thesis is to track the development of Expressionism from its roots in Germany in the 1910s to its outcome in the American theatre in the 1920s, as well as the influence of the avant-garde movement in the work of the postwar American playwright Tennessee Williams. For the purpose of the present thesis, a relation including the visual arts, theatre, literature and cinema will be traced, thus setting this work in the field of Interdisciplinary Studies. The analysis will mainly focus on 1920s American expressionist plays by Eugene O'Neill, Susan Glaspell, Elmer Rice and Sophie Treadwell, and four plays by Tennessee Williams and their respective film adaptations: The Glass Menagerie (1944), Orpheus Descending (1957), Suddenly Last Summer (1958) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1947). Firstly, the origins of Expressionism in Germany in the 1920s are presented to define the characteristics of the movement. Later, expressionistic aspects are identified in 1920s American theatre, literature and cinema. And finally, the influence of the expressionist movement is verified in the work of Tennessee Williams, both in his plays and film versions. The objective of this thesis is to prove the connection of Tennessee Willliams's work with that of earlier American expressionist playwrights, as well as to discuss the interrelation and collaborative aspect of the visual arts, theatre, literature and cinema.