What weird meant to Williams

Authors

  • David Kaplan Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival

Keywords:

Tennessee Williams, Weird Tales, Queer, Fantasia, Ficção científica, Fantasy, Science fiction

Abstract

Em agosto de 1928, a revista Weird Tales publicou “A vingança de Nitócris”, um conto escrito por Thomas Lanier Williams, com apenas 16 anos na época. O que Tennessee Williams escreveu posteriormente em sua vida assemelha-se às tramas, à estrutura e ao estilo das histórias (incluindo os nomes dos personagens) que apareceram em Weird Tales em torno de 1927 e 1928. De maneira consistente, onde a progressão de certas imagens de fantasia (incluindo fantasmas e vampiros) em Weird Tales leva a uma morte fulminante e punição no inferno, a mesma ideia de fantasia incorporada por Williams em suas peças, poesia e ficção evolui para uma vida próspera e, mesmo na morte, como no caso da morte de Nitócris, conquista e satisfação autodefinidas.

Abstract

In August 1928, Weird Tales magazine published “The vengeance of Nitocris,” a short story written by 16 year-old Thomas Lanier Williams. What Tennessee Williams wrote later in his life resembles the plots, the structure, and stylings of stories (including the names of characters) that appeared in Weird Tales in and around 1927 and 1928. Consistently, where the progression of certain fantasy images (including ghosts and vampires) in Weird Tales leads to withering death and punishment in hell, the same fantasy imagery included by Williams in his plays, poetry, and fiction progresses to flourishing life and, even in death, as in the death of Nitocris, self-defined accomplishment and satisfaction.

Author Biography

  • David Kaplan, Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival

    David Kaplan is the author of Tennessee Williams in Provincetown (2006) and Tenn years (2015), a collection of essays about Williams in production. He is the editor of Tenn at one hundred (2011) the centennial collection of essays about Williams’ reputation. Curator/cofounder (in 2006) of the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival, he has directed productions of Williams around the world including Suddenly last summer in Russia (1993), The eccentricities of a nightingale in Hong Kong (2003), Ten blocks on the Camino Real in Uruguay (2012) and Ghana (2016) — and throughout the U.S. since 1973

References

CAPRON, Louis B. The soul that waited: a passion for a mummy. Weird Tales, v. 5, n. 6, p. 385-392, June 1925.

GAUTIER, Theophile. The mummy’s foot (Le pied de momie). English translation by Lafcadio Hearn. Weird Tales, v. 7, n. 4, p. 527-534, April 1926.

HARLOW, Alvin F. Folks used to believe: the familiar. Weird Tales, v. 11, n. 4, p. 41, April 1928.

LEVERICH, Lyle. Tom: the unknown Tennessee Williams. New York: Crown, 1995.

LOVECRAFT, H. P. Imprisoned with the pharaohs. [First credited to Harry Houdini.] Weird Tales, v. 4, n. 2, p. 3-12, May-July 1924.

LOVECRAFT, H. P. The call of Cthulhu. Weird Tales, v. 11, n. 2, p. 159-178, 287, February 1928.

LOVECRAFT, H. P. The outsider. Weird Tales, v. 7, n. 4, p. 449-453, April 1926a.

LOVECRAFT, H. P. The tomb. Weird Tales, v. 7, n. 1, p. 117-123, January 1926b.

LOVECRAFT, H. P. Yule horror. Weird Tales, v. 8, n. 6, p. 846, December 1926c.

QUINN, Seabury. The end of the horror. Weird Tales, v. 6, n. 1, p. 121-124, July 1925a.

QUINN, Seabury. The Salem horror. Weird Tales, v. 5, n. 3, p. 73-77, March 1925b.

WEIRD TALES, v. 11, n. 2, inside cover, February 1928.

WHITMAN, Walt. Death carol. Weird Tales, v. 7, n. 3, p. 398, March 1926.

WHITMAN, Walt. Whispers of heavenly death. Weird Tales, v. 6, n. 5, p. 699, November 1925.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. William´s wells of violence. New York Times, p. 446, Sunday March 8, 1959.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. A cavalier for milady. In: WILLIAMS, Tennessee. The traveling companion and other plays. New York: New Directions, 2008a. p. 47-76.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. Aimez-vous Ionesco? In: WILLIAMS, Tennessee. Now the cats with jeweled claws & other one-act plays. New York: New Directions, 2016. p. 117-124.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. Clothes for a summer hotel. New York: New Directions, 1983.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. Collected stories. New York: New Directions, 1985.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. Something cloudy, something clear. New York: New Directions, 1995.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. The eccentricities of a nightingale. New York: New Directions, 1964.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. The glass menagerie. New York: Random House, 1945.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. The mutilated. A play in one act. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1967.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. The Red Devil Battery sign. New York: New Directions, 1988.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. The vengeance of Nitocris. Weird Tales, v. 12, n. 2, p. 253-260, 288, August 1928.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. Tennessee Williams Volume 1, Plays 1937-1955. Edited by Kenneth Holditch and Mel Gussow. New York: Library of America, 2000a.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. Tennessee Williams Volume 2, Plays 1957-1980. Edited by Kenneth Holditch and Mel Gussow. New York: Library of America, 2000b.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. The yellow bird. Town & Country, p. 40-41, 102-107, June 1947.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. Vieux Carré. New York: New Directions, 1971.

WILLIAMS, Tennessee. Will Mr. Merriwether return from Memphis? In: WILLIAMS, Tennessee. The traveling companion and other plays. New York: New Directions, 2008b. p. 225-286.

Downloads

Published

2023-12-28

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 2 (2023)

Section

Ensaios