Tennessee Williams and A Streetcar Named Desire: Exploring American Drama
7) TENNESSEE WILLIAMS AND A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
Development of American Drama
American drama wasn’t an ambitious art form until the 20th century due to Puritanical hostility. Theater was seen as an Old World pleasure, with London companies primarily performing Shakespearean plays. Plays performed in previous centuries were considered entertainment rather than literary works.
Late 19th Century: REALISM
Serious American theater began in the late 19th century. American playwrights, however, didn’t
Read MoreGlossary of Literary Terms and Movements
A
Allegory
A literary figure that represents an abstract idea using human forms, animals, and everyday objects. It creates an extensive metaphorical image representing a complex thought or human experience and may constitute entire works.
C
Comedy
A dramatic subgenre where protagonists face everyday difficulties, often driven by their flaws, leading to happy endings that mock human weakness. Comedy originated in ancient Greece and developed through medieval and modern times.
D
Dramatic Units
Derived from
Read MoreThe Scream by Edvard Munch: An Expressionist Masterpiece
The Scream by Edvard Munch (1893)
Expressionist Style
Technical Analysis and Elements
Formal Elements (2.1)
This iconic painting, executed in oil and tempera on cardboard, showcases a striking contrast between warm (red, yellow, orange) and cool (blue, purple) colors. The blue hues depict a fjord overlooking a port city. Munch employs a free and loose brushstroke, with broad, quick strokes that enhance the emotional intensity of the scene. The unreal, almost comic-like lighting adds to the unsettling
Read MoreThe Identity Plot in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
IDENTITY PLOT
The narrative revolves around the question of how to define and understand a character’s identity. The character must be a member of a minority within a larger society. The character is at odds with the minority group of which he/she is a part. The character stands in conflict with the majority as well as with the minority on account of his/her difference.
Authenticity and origin are always at stake in the character’s quest for personal identity. There are comic and tragic versions
Read MoreThe Expressive Genius of Antoni Gaudí and Henri Matisse
Casa Mila (La Pedrera) 1906-10. Barcelona. Antoni Gaudí.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Modernism as a movement emerged that aim at a total renovation of the arts. So we’ll see how his character will be extended for painting, sculpture and, above all, architecture, design and printing (still very important in the development of posters and publicity). We can not forget that this is a spiritually bourgeois style, since the service of this class and pleasing looking through,
The Expressive Genius of Antoni Gaudí and Henri Matisse
Casa Milà (La Pedrera) 1906-1910, Barcelona. Antoni Gaudí
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Modernism emerged as a movement aiming for a total renovation of the arts. Its influence extended to painting, sculpture, and, above all, architecture, design, and printing (crucial in developing posters and publicity). This spiritually bourgeois style served this class, appealing to their taste for the decorative, often used profusely and randomly. One could say that Modernism is inherently
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