Poetic Qualities of Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie

Abstract

Tennessee Williams is perhaps one of the most prolific, versatile American playwrights after Eugene O’Neill. For decades from 1940’s his play had dominated American theater. The Glass Menagerie was Williams’s first successful play stages in 1944. It has a profound and lasting influence on the 20th century American drama and therefore is considered as “his legacy to the modern theater”. In The Glass Menagerie, Williams practices the “new plastic theater” by using a variety of non-theatrical approaches, such as poetic language, theme and background music, sound effects, impressionistic lighting, and transparent stage settings as well as cinematic techniques to express abstract themes and to create theatrical excitement. Among all the dramatic techniques, Tennessee Williams found symbolism the best medium to metaphorize abstract ideas and concepts to achieve indirectness and avoid bluntness and obviousness. Virtually, every tangible object the stage is a symbol. Because of his innovation, he is credited as “poet of the theater”.
 
Key Words: Tennessee Williams; plastic theater; the Glass Menagerie;
theatrical techniques

摘  要

田纳西•威廉斯是继尤金•奥尼尔后现代美国才华横溢,著述颇丰的剧作家之一。从二十世纪四十年代起的数十年中,田纳西的作品在美国的戏剧舞台上独占熬头。《玻璃动物园》是威廉斯的成名作。它对二十世纪的美国戏剧产生了深远的影响。《玻璃动物园》被称为是“现代戏剧的宝贵遗产”。在该剧中田纳西•威廉斯尝试着用他独创的现代“造型戏剧”,并且把表现主义的各种不同手法运用到表现抽象戏剧主题和舞台效果上。通过诗化语言、背景音乐、音响效果、灯光照明、布景设计、电影技巧等多个手段在舞台上展示了一个美国普通家庭的方方面面。田纳西•威廉斯在《玻璃动物园》中大量地运用了比喻和象征主义创作手法,舞台上的有形物品几乎都有所指,有力地烘托了气氛,祈祷的渲染主题的作用,使他的作品产生了强烈的艺术效果。正是基于他的舞台创新,他被誉为“剧院诗人”。

关键词: 田纳西•威廉斯 、“造型戏剧” 、《玻璃动物园》、戏剧技巧

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