ENGL 4304-2013,5304-2016
Tennessee Williams
Daily 9.40-11.10 a.m.
Irby 304
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Dr. R.-J. Frontain
Office: Irby 118
Office Hours: 9-9.40,11.10-12 daily
Office Phone: 450-5122
Tennessee Williams's short stories and plays defined and advanced the cultural revolution that took place in America following World War II. He is, with Eugene O'Neill and Edward Albee, one of the three most important playwrights that American culture has produced; internationally, his influence may exceed theirs, even. As much as the novels of William Faulkner, his plays define Southern culture. And his plays (as well as the films made of them) continue to frame discussion of gender and of gender politics in the United States. This course will examine select plays and stories in terms of the religion of sensitivity and poetic creativity that Williams proposed to replace the American values of capitalism and cruelty. Special attention will be given to film treatments of Williams's plays in an assessment of which of his challenges Williams's contemporaries could or could not accept.
TEXTBOOKS
Tennessee Williams, Plays 1937-1955 and Plays 1957-1980 (Library of America, 2 vols.)
_____. Collected Stories (New Directions)
SCHEDULE OF READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS
T July 6 FILM: Night of the Iguana
W July 7 FILM: Suddenly Last Summer
R July 8 FILM: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
F July 9 FILM: A Streetcar Named Desire
During this week, students should begin reading Complete Stories, choosing the story on which they will write their term paper, and paying particular attention to the following, which will be used in class discussion: "Twenty-seven Wagons Full of Cotton" (43), "The Mysteries of the Joy Rio" (99), "One Ann" (189), "Desire and the Black Masseur" (205), "Two on a Party" (283), and "The Mattress by the Tomato Patch" (359)
Unit I: Men, God, and Desire
M July 12 Night of the Iguana
T July 13 "
W July 14 Suddenly Last Summer
R July 15 conclude discussion of Suddenly; begin discussion of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
F July 16 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
M
July 19 conclude discussion of Cat
Unit
II: Women, Society, and Desire
T
July 20 Streetcar Named Desire
W
July 21 "
R
July 22 "
F
July 23 MIDTERM EXAMINATION
M
July 26 Summer and Smoke
[After
class, a film version of Williams' revision of this play, titled The
Eccentricities of a Nightingale, will be shown in Irby 118]
T
July 27 "
W
July 28 Sweet Bird of Youth
R
July 29 "; begin discussion of Orpheus Descending
F
July 30 conclude discussion of Orpheus Descending PAPER DUE IN CLASS
Unit
ill: The Experimental Williams
M
Aug. 2 Camino Real
[After
class, a film version of this play will be shown in Irby 118]
T
Aug. 3 "
W
Aug. 4 The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore
R
Aug. 5 "
F
Aug. 6 FINAL EXAMINATION
GRADUATE
STUDENTS
To
receive 5000-level credit, graduate students will read, in addition to the
above, Glass Menagerie and one other Williams play of their choosing.
(The later will be the basis of their term paper.) The instructor and graduate
students will meet seminar-style following class (11.15-12) Aug. 3, 4, and 5 to
discuss Glass Menagerie and the plays on which they have done their
papers.
Those
graduate students needing 6000-level credit may join the instructor's discussion
group on modem American drama that will follow this additional schedule of
readings and meetings:
July
13,14, and 15: Eugene O'Neill, Moon for the Misbegotten and Long Day's
Journey into Night
July
20, 21, and 22: Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and A View from
the Bridge
July
27, 28, and 29: Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and A
Delicate Balance
These
plays should be read in advance of the term
COURSE POLICIES
1. The instructor will be out of town on university business the first four class meetings. The English department's choice was either to schedule the course to meet daily for an extended period for four weeks only (which would, however, have prevented students from taking another course during Period l or 3), or to schedule on the days that he will be absent the films that he planned to show at various times during the summer term. The latter seemed the better option. Although students will have no reading required of them for the fIrst four class meetings, they should concentrate that first week on reading the Collected Stories, paying particular attention to the ones designated for class discussion.
2. While allowing students the benefit of concentrating intensively on Tennessee Williams's work, a five-week summer term passes swiftly and students cannot afford to fall behind. We will be covering, on average, one play every 2-2.5 meetings. On those days when the syllabus lists only one play for discussion, students should have that play read in its entirety. However, on those days when the syllabus designates that one play will be concluded and another begun, only the first act of the new play need be prepared. Students should keep in mind that pop reading quizzes administered at the beginning of the period will make for 25% of the final grade.
3. One ninety minute class meeting during summer term is the equivalent of 1.8 class meetings during the regular term in a MWF sequence, or 1.2 meetings in a T Th sequence. Thus, missing two summer meetings is the equivalent of missing 1.5 weeks during a full term. Students should drop the course rather than miss three class meetings lest they damage their quiz average, miss so much course material that they cannot succeed on the exams, find themselves dropped for non-attendance, or find their final grade penalized. One must be present the full 90 minutes of each class meeting to be counted present.
4. On July 30 undergraduates will submit a 5-page, double spaced, typewritten paper analyzing anyone ofWilliams's short stories in the thematic context of his plays, and graduate students will submit a l5-page paper making intelligent use of Williams's short stories while analyzing one of his plays not assigned for class. The paper should follow MLA documentation format and rules for formal manuscript preparation.
5. The final grade will be computed as follows: quiz average (25%), midterm exam (20%), critical paper (25%), and final exam (30%).