A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE – TENNESSEE WILLIAMS-BESS ROWEN

This revised Student Edition includes an introduction by Bess Rowen, Assistant Professor at Villanova University, US, which looks in particular at the play s treatment of rape, vulnerable people, mental institutions (especially in connection to Williams s own family), sexuality and sexual desire. A Streetcar Named Desire shows a turbulent confrontation between traditional values in the American South – an old-world graciousness and beauty running decoratively to seed – set against the rough-edged, aggressive materialism of the new world. Through the vividly characterised figures of Southern belle Blanche Dubois, seeking refuge from physical ugliness in decayed gentility, and her brutal brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski, Tennessee Williams dramatises his sense of the South s past as still active and often destructive in modern America. METHUEN DRAMA STUDENT EDITIONS are expertly annotated texts of a wide range of plays from the modern and classic repertoires. A well as the complete text of the play itself, this volume contains: · A chronology of the play and the playwright’s life and work · An introductory discussion of the social, political, cultural and economic context in which the play was originally conceived and created · A succinct overview of the creation processes followed and subsequent performance history of the piece · An analysis of, and commentary on, some of the major themes and specific issues addressed by the text · A bibliography of suggested primary and secondary materials for further study