Symbolic creatures: spirituality and evanescence in Tennessee Williams's plays and short stories

[Article in Modern Greek]

Autores

  • Anthoullis Demosthenous European University Cyprus

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13800099

Palavras-chave:

Christ, Church, God, Orpheus, Animal

Resumo

The aim of this research is the interpretation of William’s poetic contrivance concerning the use of animals, mythological beasts and symbolic creatures in plays and short stories. Through an interdisciplinary lens we juxtapose different cases such as the Iguana in The night of the iguana, birds and sea turtles in Suddenly last summer, griffin in A milktrain doesn’t stop here anymore, cat in “The malediction” etc. These symbolic creatures are allusions of fantastic characters’ anima, meaning the irrational part of the soul. In religious imagery these symbolisms are widespread. The symbolic creatures are the subtext of spirituality and evanescence in Williams’ work.

Biografia do Autor

  • Anthoullis Demosthenous, European University Cyprus

    Professor of Greek at European University Cyprus.

Referências

BARNABÉ, Alberto. Autour du mythe orphique sur Dionysos et les Titans. Quelques notes critiques. In: ACORINTI, Domenico; CHUVIN, Pierre. Des Géants à Dionysos. Mélanges offerts à F. Vian, Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, 2003.

COLÀS, Santiago. Telling true stories, or The immanent ethics of material spirit (and spiritual matter) in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. Discourse, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, v. 27, n. 1, p. 50-58, 2005.

DEBUSSCHER, Gilbert. Tennessee Williams as hagiographer: an aspect of obliquity in drama. Revue des Langues Vivantes, Berlin- Munich- Boston: De Gruyter, v. 40, p. 449-456, 1974.

GOATLY, Andrew. Humans, animals and metaphors. Society & Animals, Leiden: Brill, v. 14, n. 1, p. 15-37, 2006.

GOODERHAM, David. Fantasizing it as it is: religious language in Philip Pullman’s trilogy, His Dark Materials. Children’s literature, Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, v. 31, n. 1, p. 155-175, 2003.

GREGORII NYSSENI. Oratio Catechetica (edited by E. Mühlenberg). Leiden: Brill, 1996.

GRIFFIES, William Scott. Incorporating brain explanations in psychoanalysis: Tennessee Williams as a case study. Psychodynamic Psychiatry, New York: Guilford Press, v. 50, n. 3, p. 492-512, 2022.

GRIFFIES, William Scott. A streetcar named Desire and Tennessee Williams’ object relational conflicts. International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, v. 4, n. 2, p. 110-127, 2007.

HEINTZELMAN, Greta; SMITH-HOWARD, Alycia. A critical companion to Tennessee Williams. New York: Facts on File, 2005.

HEZAVEH, Leila Rezai; ABDULLAH, Nurul F. L.; YAAPAR, Salleh. Psychoanalysis and drama: a Kristevan reading of Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer. Contemporary Perspectives in English Language Studies. Penang: University of Malasya Press, p. 1-11, 2012.

KAUFMAN, Gordon D. The theological imagination: constructing the concept of God. London: Westminster John Knox Press, 1981.

LAHR, John. Tennessee Williams. Mad pilgrimage of the flesh. London: Bloomsbury, 2014.

LANDER, Gerhart B. The philosophical anthropology of Saint Gregory of Nyssa. Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Boston: University of Harvard, v. 12, p. 59-94, 1958.

LINGRAN, Liu. San Vitale Apse: a holistic consideration. Third International Conference on Language, Art and Cultural Exchange, Paris: Atlantis Press, p. 571-579, 2022.

MOATTY, Yves. Orphée crucifié. La Voix que la lumière fit entendre. Paris: Deux Océans, 2003.

MURPHY, Brenda. The theatre of Tennessee Williams. London-New York: Methuen, 2014.

PARKER, Brian. Tennessee Williams and the legends of St. Sebastian. University of Toronto Quarterly, Toronto, v. 69, n.3, p. 634-659, Summer, 2000.

RASMI, Atekeh. The symbols and appearances of Anima and Animus s archetypes in Epoppee of Korogli. Journal of Lyrical Literature Researches, Zahedan: University of Sistan and Baluchestan Press, v. 20, n. 38, p. 145-170, 2022.

SADDIK, Annette J. Tennessee Williams and the theatre of excess. The strange, the crazed, the queer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.

SCHVEY, Henry I. Blue song. St. Louis in the life and work of Tennessee Williams. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2021.

THOMPSON, Judith J. Tennessee Williams’ plays: memory, myth, and symbol. New York: P. Lang, 1987.

TISCHLER, Nancy M. Tennessee Williams: rebellious puritan. New York: Citadel, 1965.

TOSIO, Paul. An object relational psychoanalysis of selected Tennessee Williams playtexts (Master’s dissertation), Rhodes University, 2003.

WATZLAWICK, Paul. Brief communications. Paradoxical predictions. Psychiatry, London: Hindawi, v. 28. p. 368- 374, Nov. 1, 1965.

WATZLAWICK, Paul; JACKSON, Don D. On human communication. Journal of Systemic Therapies, New York: Guilford Press, v. 29, n. 2, p. 53-68, 2010.

WILLIAMS, Edwina Dakin. Remember me to Tom. The memoirs of Tennessee Williams’s mother. London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1963.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. Five o’clock angel. Letters of Tennessee Williams to Maria St. Just 1948-1982. New York: Alfred Knofp, 1990.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. Notebooks (edited by M. Bradham Thornton). New Haven: Yale University Press New Haven, 2006.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. One arm and other stories. Cambridge: New Directions, 1967.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. Plays: 1957 – 1980. New York: The Library of America, 2000.

Downloads

Publicado

2024-09-20