Download or read book The American Dream disillusionment in the American theatre with special reference to Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller written by Silvia Elias and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2014-10-28 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Master's Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: Master's Degree, University of Alexandria (Faculty of Arts (English Dept.)), language: English, abstract: Dreams are the only universal liars who never lose their reputation for veracity because "hope is the poor man's bread" said Gary Herbert to his people. This is how the American Dream emerged and survived to be a legend that knew its way to people's hearts all over the globe. It is the dream of freedom, equality, opportunity and making fortunes; the golden chance to those who can obtain the green passport. It is what drove millions everywhere to immigrate both legally and illegally to the US in search for a better future for them and their children. Unfortunately, one cannot make dreams come true unless he/she wakes up because in fact they are always too good to be true. Americans have realized that their dream is slipping away due to their financial crisis, deteriorating economy and growing population. However, they had to keep promoting their merchandize, entertaining their audience to maintain their superiority, leadership and grandeur. For years, American playwrights praised America's alleged welfare offered to the oppressed and the persecuted. Later, dramatists started disillusioning their audience; revealing the ugly face of reality behind the perfect dream. In an attempt that is unique of its kind, this research traces how the American Dream (the notion that shaped a nation) was depicted in different works of art by various playwrights with special reference to two towering figures of American literature; Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. Throughout my project, I was exposed to different points of view of both American and Un-American writers. Some stated their resentment directly in newspaper and television interviews while others made it clear through their characters who depict the suffering average everyday American facing reality by illusion. Modern American theatre is rich with these examples. One can only read between the lines to realize the fallacy of the dream and this has been my favorite part.
Download or read book The Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century Literature in English written by Jenny Stringer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1996-09-26 with total page 774 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a unique new reference book to English-language writers and writing throughout the present century, in all major genres and from all around the world - from Joseph Conrad to Will Self, Virginia Woolf to David Mamet, Ezra Pound to Peter Carey, James Joyce to Amy Tan. The survivors of the Victorian age who feature in The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English - writers such as Thomas Hardy, Olive Schreiner, Rabindranath Tagore, Henry James - could hardly have imagined how richly diverse `Literature in English' would become by the end of the century. Fiction, plays, poetry, and a whole range of non-fictional writing are celebrated in this informative, readable, and catholic reference book, which includes entries on literary movements, periodicals, and over 400 individual works, as well as articles on some 2,400 authors. All the great literary figures are included, whether American or Australian, British, Irish, or Indian, African or Canadian or Caribbean - among them Samuel Beckett, Edith Wharton, Patrick White, T. S. Eliot, Derek Walcott, D. H. Lawrence, Tennessee Williams, Vladimir Nabokov, Wole Soyinka, Sylvia Plath - as well as a wealth of less obviously canonical writers, from Anaïs Nin to L. M. Montgomery, Bob Dylan to Terry Pratchett. The book comes right up to date with contemporary figures such as Toni Morrison, Ben Okri, Salman Rushdie, Carol Shields, Tim Winton, Nadine Gordimer, Vikram Seth, Don Delillo, and many others. Title entries range from Aaron's Rod to The Zoo Story; topics from Angry Young Men, Bestsellers, and Concrete Poetry to Soap Opera, Vietnam Writing, and Westerns. A lively introduction by John Sutherland highlights the various and sometimes contradictory canons that have emerged over the century, and the increasingly international sources of writing in English which the Companion records. Catering for all literary tastes, this is the most comprehensive single-volume guide to modern (and postmodern) literature.
Download or read book The Theatre of Tennessee Williams written by Tennessee Williams and published by New Directions Publishing. This book was released on 1971 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now available as a paperbook, Volume VIII adds to the series' four full-length plays written and produced during the last decade of Williams' life.
Download or read book Arthur Miller for the Twenty First Century written by Stephen Marino and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-02-27 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arthur Miller for the Twenty-First Century: Contemporary Views of His Writings and Ideas brings together both established Miller experts and emerging commentators to investigate the sources of his ongoing resonance with audiences and his place in world theatre. The collection begins by exploring Miller in the context of 20th-century American drama. Chapters discuss Miller and Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, David Mamet, and Sam Shepard, as well as thematic relationships between Miller’s ideas and the explosion of significant women and African American dramatists since the 1970s. Other essays focus more directly on interpretations of Miller’s individual works, not only plays but also essays and fiction, including a discussion of Death of a Salesman in China. The volume concludes by considering Miller and current cultural issues: his work for human rights, his depiction of American ideals of masculinity, and his anticipation of contemporary posthumanism.
Download or read book The American Theater of Change written by Victoria Schmitt and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-22 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2010 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Trier, language: English, abstract: Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit der Vergangenheitsdarstellung in zwei amerikanischen Theaterstücken der Nachkriegszeit. Arthur Millers "The Crucible" sowie Tony Kushners "Angels in America" werden daher in Bezug auf verschiedene historische Aspekte verglichen. Zuerst werden die beiden Autoren und ihre Werke kurz vorgestellt, wobei das besondere Interesse beider Dramatiker an der Geschichte der USA im Vordergrund steht. Die Fragestellung der Arbeit wird wie folgt formuliert: Wie wird die Vergangenheit in "Angels in America" und in "The Crucible" dargestellt? Welche Unterschiede gibt es zwischen den beiden Autoren und welche Einsichten in Fragen der amerikanischen Identität gewähren sie? Im zweiten Kapitel wird Millers Bild vom Amerika der Puritaner während der Kolonialzeit diskutiert. Sein Stück behandelt die Hexenjagd in Salem im Jahre 1692 und bietet daher einen ausführlichen Eindruck dieser Geschichtsperiode. Millers Darstellungen werden mit Kushners eher gering gehaltenen Anspielungen auf die frühe Entstehung und Entwicklung Amerikas verglichen. Das dritte Kapitel befasst sich mit McCarthyism und mit Amerika zu Beginn des Kalten Krieges. Da Arthur Millers Stück eine Allegorie auf die Hysterie während des antikommunistischen Kreuzzuges des Senators McCarthy in den 50er Jahren darstellt, werden die Parallelen zwischen Salem und dem Nachkriegsamerika analysiert. Tony Kushner beschäftigt sich ebenfalls mit McCarthyism, indem er zwei Zeitzeugen in seinem Stück auftreten lässt: Roy Cohn, der McCarthys Kollege und Vertrauter war und Ethel Rosenberg, ein Opfer des Antikommunismus. Die Ausführungen beider Dramatiker plädieren für die Wichtigkeit der Vergangenheit für Gegenwart und Zukunft Amerikas. Die Administration Ronald Reagans ist im vierten Kapitel von Bedeutung, da sich die Handlung von Angels in America primär zwische
Download or read book Modern American Drama 1945 2000 written by C. W. E. Bigsby and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-12-21 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New edition of Modern American Drama completes the survey and comes up to 2000.
Download or read book Long Day s Journey Into Night written by Eugene O'Neill and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2014-05-06 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: divEugene O’Neill’s autobiographical play Long Day’s Journey into Night is regarded as his masterpiece and a classic of American drama. With this new edition, at last it has the critical edition that it deserves. William Davies King provides students and theater artists with an invaluable guide to the text, including an essay on historical and critical perspectives; glosses of literary allusions and quotations; notes on the performance history; an annotated bibliography; and illustrations. "This is a worthy new edition, one that I'm sure will appeal to many students and teachers. William Davies King provides a thoughtful introduction to Long Day's Journey into Night—equally sensitive to the most particular and most encompassing of the play's materials."—Marc Robinson/DIV
Download or read book The Dual Historical Context of Arthur Miller s The Crucible written by Kristin Hammer and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2011-12 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2000 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7 (A-), University of Münster (Anglistics/ American Studies), course: Advanced Seminar Modern American Drama, 13 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: As Arthur Miller states in his autobiography,1 The Crucible has become his most frequently produced play. This great success of a conventional drama can certainly not be explained without regard to its political message. When the play was first performed in 1953, its audiences were quick to recognize the connections between the witch craze in 17th century Massachusetts and the American anti-communist hysteria of their own time. Like any literary text, The Crucible reflects the conditions under which it was produced, and Miller himself says that he could not have written it at any other time.2 Since in this case parallels between the events in both times are extremely striking, it seems necessary for the understanding and interpretation of the play to explain its dual historical context. At the same time, it would be wrong to interpret Miller's drama against this background only. Or, as Reitz puts it: "The Crucible ist kein Schlüsseldrama, das auf die vordergründige Aktualität von Wiedererkennungseffekten setzt und zu diesem Zweck Anhänger und Gegner McCarthys als Puritaner (...) kostümiert".3 Miklos Trocsanyi argues similarly, pointing out that Miller was glad, when in the contemporary criticism (...) less and less mention was made of and parallel drawn between the witchcraft hysteria and McCarthyism. It meant that the deeper message was more and more appreciated.4 Finding out about this "deeper message" is what the analysis of the dual historical context aims at. Therefore this research paper will, after explaining the historical circumstances of both the Salem witch hunt and the American anticommunism under McCarthy, focus on parallel phenomena underlying the events in both times. This comparison, whic
Download or read book American Dream written by Edward Albee and published by Turtleback Books. This book was released on 1997-10-01 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For use in schools and libraries only. American Dream and Zoo story: two plays
Download or read book Willy Loman s False Values and Misguided Dreams written by Florian König and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2009-11-05 with total page 10 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, http://www.uni-jena.de/, course: Classics of Modern American Drama, language: English, abstract: The plot of Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Death of a Salesman revolves around the last days in the life of Willy Loman, an aging salesman, whose pursuit of a prosperous and rewarding life for himself and his two sons, especially his oldest one Biff, comes to a tragic end. One of the reasons why he fails is because he values the wrong things and leads his life guided by wrong dreams. Willy Loman, the protagonist of Miller’s classic, which critics label “as one of the most powerful and affecting plays in American theatrical history”, appears to overemphasize such things as success, physical ability or personal attractiveness and looses his sense of the real forces of life in his attempt to achieve his “(American) dream. He holds onto his dream and his ideas long after they cease to correspond with reality. This is his biggest flaw and dooms him at last. In the following paragraphs, I want to explore some examples of these values and dreams which seem to dictate Willy Loman’s life and also, mostly because of him, the lives of his sons Biff and Happy and will eventually lead to his death through suicide, which , in the end, “will create the fortune that his life could never accumulate.” In the subsequent chapter, I will show by whom the main character Willy Loman is influenced. The question that should be investigated is: Who could be the sources of Willy’s philosophy of life? After that, in chapters 3 and 4, I want to go into further detail and provide specific examples of the major motifs that Miller sustains throughout the play, which in particular are: the importance of “being well liked” and the importance physical prowess.
Download or read book Writing the Nation A Concise Introduction to American Literature 1865 to Present written by Amy Berke and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2023-12-01 with total page 742 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Writing the Nation displays key literary movements and the American authors associated with the movement. Topics include late romanticism, realism, naturalism, modernism, and modern literature. Contents: Late Romanticism (1855-1870) Realism (1865-1890) Local Color (1865-1885) Regionalism (1875-1895) William Dean Howells Ambrose Bierce Henry James Sarah Orne Jewett Kate Chopin Mary E. Wilkins Freeman Charles Waddell Chesnutt Charlotte Perkins Gilman Naturalism (1890-1914) Frank Norris Stephen Crane Turn of the Twentieth Century and the Growth of Modernism (1893 - 1914) Booker T. Washington Zane Grey Modernism (1914 - 1945) The Great War Une Generation Perdue... (a Lost Generation) A Modern Nation Technology Modernist Literature Further Reading: Additional Secondary Sources Robert Frost Wallace Stevens William Carlos Williams Ezra Pound Marianne Moore T. S. Eliot Edna St. Vincent Millay E. E. Cummings F. Scott Fitzgerald Ernest Hemingway Arthur Miller Southern Renaissance – First Wave Ellen Glasgow William Faulkner Eudora Alice Welty The Harlem Renaissance Jessie Redmon Fauset Zora Neale Hurston Nella Larsen Langston Hughes Countee Cullen Jean Toomer American Literature Since 1945 (1945 - Present) Southern Literary Renaissance - Second Wave (1945-1965) The Cold War and the Southern Literary Renaissance Economic Prosperity The Civil Rights Movement in the South New Criticism and the Rise of the MFA Program Innovation Tennessee Williams James Dickey Flannery O'Connor Postmodernism Theodore Roethke Ralph Ellison James Baldwin Allen Ginsberg Adrienne Rich Toni Morrison Donald Barthelme Sylvia Plath Don Delillo Alice Walker Leslie Marmon Silko David Foster Wallace
Download or read book American Theatre written by and published by . This book was released on 1967 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Trifles written by Susan Glaspell and published by . This book was released on 1916 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Critical Essays on Tennessee Williams written by Robert A. Martin and published by Twayne Publishers. This book was released on 1997 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive collection of essays about Tennessee Williams, containing both early reviews and a broad selection of modern scholarship, including six original essays commissioned for this volume.
Download or read book The Face of Illusion in American Drama written by A. D. Choudhuri and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Tennessee Williams written by John Lahr and published by Bloomsbury Circus. This book was released on 2014 with total page 765 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 31 March 1945, at The Playhouse Theatre on Forty-Eight Street the curtain rose on the opening night of The Glass Menagerie. Tennessee Williams, the show's thirty-four-year-old playwright, sat hunched in an aisle seat, looking, according to one paper, 'like a farm boy in his Sunday best'. The Broadway premiere, which had been heading for disaster, closed to an astonishing twenty-four curtain calls and became an instant sell-out. Beloved by an American public, Tennessee Williams's work - blood hot and personal - pioneered, as Arthur Miller declared, 'a revolution' in American theatre. Tracing Williams's turbulent moral and psychological shifts, acclaimed theatre critic John Lahr sheds new light on the man and his work, as well as the America his plays helped to define. Williams created characters so large that they have become part of American folklore: Blanche, Stanley, Big Daddy, Brick, Amanda and Laura transcend their stories, haunting us with their fierce, flawed lives. Similarly, Williams himself swung high and low in his single-minded pursuit of greatness. Lahr shows how Williams's late-blooming homosexual rebellion, his struggle against madness, his grief-struck relationships with his combustible father, prim and pious mother and 'mad' sister Rose, victim to one of the first lobotomies in America, became central themes in his drama. Including Williams's poems, stories, journals and private correspondence in his discussion of the work - posthumously Williams has been regarded as one of the best letter writers of his day - Lahr delivers an astoundingly sensitive and lively reassessment of one of America's greatest dramatists. Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh is the long-awaited, definitive life and a masterpiece of the biographer's art.
Download or read book The soft People in Tennessee Williams Plays written by Maritta Schwartz and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2008-08 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 1999 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2 (B), Ruhr-University of Bochum (English Seminar), course: Hauptseminar: Modern American Drama, 14 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: In this written paper I am going to deal with the topic of soft people in Tennessee Williams' dramas. First I will give a general introduction to the quality of soft people. It will be explained what kind of characters are described with this term. A general characterization of them, of the other characters and the general idea and image of the world which is created in Williams' dramas will be given. Afterwards the results will be specified at the examples of four characters belonging to the category of soft people. At the end of this paper I will give a personal evaluation of the conception of the soft people.
