Building on recent theatre scholarship theorizing the role of stage properties, this article parses the function that objects acquire in Tennessee Williams's plays The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire. Reconsidering these works through the role of objects such as clothes, baggage, letters, and bottles, allows for a deeper understanding of the issues embedded in the signifying economy of the two plays. A diacronic and synchronic overview of the meaningful and recurring props to be found in these works shows how certain objects circulate in a cultural landscape where gender and sexuality dominate the dramatic discourse of the era. Williams's theatre thus proves preoccupied with a reductive sense of objectification that belittles and disparages human beings in general and women in particular. Through a subtle indictment of the materialist and consumerist world of 1940s America, these plays give objects the power to evidence gender inequalities and hegemonic sexual politics.

Proper Props. Circulating Objects in The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire

Alessandro Clericuzio
2023

Abstract

Building on recent theatre scholarship theorizing the role of stage properties, this article parses the function that objects acquire in Tennessee Williams's plays The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire. Reconsidering these works through the role of objects such as clothes, baggage, letters, and bottles, allows for a deeper understanding of the issues embedded in the signifying economy of the two plays. A diacronic and synchronic overview of the meaningful and recurring props to be found in these works shows how certain objects circulate in a cultural landscape where gender and sexuality dominate the dramatic discourse of the era. Williams's theatre thus proves preoccupied with a reductive sense of objectification that belittles and disparages human beings in general and women in particular. Through a subtle indictment of the materialist and consumerist world of 1940s America, these plays give objects the power to evidence gender inequalities and hegemonic sexual politics.
2023
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11391/1570393
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