Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
Tennessee Williams, T-shirt Modernism and the Refashionings of Theater reappraises the received wisdom that Williams’s work fell into decline in the late 1960 as the Naturalism he was associated with, not always through his own choice, was replaced by European theatrical experimentalism and as culture saw a lifting of sexual restrictions. It suggests, instead, that Williams was always experimental, always more Chekhov than Ibsen, a lyrical playwright inflected with the poetry of Harte Crane, and that his late plays are as central to Williams’s reshaping of American theater as those works of the immediate post–World War II era that brought him fame and fortune. Its general aim, then, is to engage the perception that “Tennessee Williams is the greatest unknown playwright America has produced” (David Savran, City University of New York).
In many respects the work of Tennessee Williams, after a protracted period of neglect, is primed for reappraisal , reinterpretations and, subsequently, re-stagings. This work is part of that process, academically at very least, but performatively as well as academic reinterest often regenerates theatrical reinterest.
“Gontarski's new book about Tennessee Williams brings us to the sultry Southern stages where T-shirts were not just props randomly taken from wardrobes but new signs of an evocative dramatic language. As his themes became less relevant for modern generations, the playwright's signature appeal changed from erotic ambiguity to stylistic sophistication. And a question arises: is Williams' theatre better suited for American or for European directors? Gontarski looks for answers, his investigations ranging from the heyday of the playwright's global fame to less-studied productions of his work in the 21st century.” — Alessandro Clericuzio, Associate Professor, University of Perugia
List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Saint Tennessee: An Introduction; 1. T-shirt Modernism and Performed Masculinities: The Theatrical Refashionings of Tennessee Williams and William Inge; 2. “Intense Honesty”: Race, Sex and Cross-Cultural Perspectives; 3. Becoming Samuel Beckett: Tennessee Williams and Theatrical Change on the Post–World War II World Stage; 4. Reframing Tennessee: A Short Afterword; Notes; Bibliography; Index.