Understanding Tennessee Williams - Paperback

by Alice Griffin (Author)

Alice Griffin offers an in-depth evaluation of the nine plays that established Tennessee Williams as America's greatest lyric dramatist. Describing Williams as the first playwright writing in English to combine full-blooded characters, theatricalism, and poetic dialogue, Griffin analyzes the language, characters, dramatic effects, and staging of his classic plays and calls attention to Williams's unique gift for creating dialogue as lyrical poetry yet as authentic as everyday conversation. She reveals the importance of symbolism in his work, uncovers his often overlooked humor, and explains his insistence on "plastic" presentations. Griffin also chronicles the resistance that Williams met when he tried to bring his revolutionary staging ideas to the commercial theater.

Front Jacket

An introduction to Williams both as a literary figure and as a stage innovator

Author Biography

Alice Griffin is a professor emerita and former director of graduate studies in English at Lehman College of the City University of New York. She is the author of Understanding Lillian Hellman, Understanding Arthur Miller, Rebels and Lovers: Shakespeare's Young Heroes and Heroines, and Shakespeare's Women in Love.