Authors:
Fills a gap in scholarship on Williams in its focus on one of the playwright's key geographical influences
Includes unpublished censorship documents revealing the interest of the Italian government in Williams' work
Explores the Italian inspiration for Williams' play The Rose Tattoo
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
This book reveals for the first time the import of a huge network of connections between Tennessee Williams and the country closest to his heart, Italy.
America's most thought-provoking playwright loved Italy more than any other country outside the US and was deeply influenced by its culture for most of his life. Anna Magnani's film roles in the 1940s, Italian Neo-realist cinema, the theatre of Eduardo De Filippo, as well as the actual experience of Italian life and culture during his long stays in the country were some of the elements shaping his literary output. Through his lover Frank Merlo, he also had first-hand knowledge of Italian-American life in Brooklyn.
Tracing the establishment of his reputation with the Italian intelligentsia, as well as with theatre practitioners and with generations of audiences, the book also tells the story of a momentous collaboration in the theatre, between Williams and Luchino Visconti, who had to defy the unceasing control Italian censorship exerted on Williams for decades.Keywords
- American Literature
- American Playwrights
- American Theatre
- Theatre History
- Streetcar Named Desire
- Glass Menagerie
- Twentieth Century Drama
- The Rose Tattoo
- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
- Un tram che si chiama desiderio
- transnational theatre
- international theatre
- Luchino Visconti
- twentieth century Italy
- state censorship
- fascist legacy
- Eduardo De Filippo
- Salvatore Di Giacomo
- queer studies
Reviews
“Alessandro Clericuzio's transcultural study not only fills gaps in our knowledge about the particulars of Williams's affinity for Italy, but also explores the chequered history of reception of Williams's work by Italian directors, audiences, critics, and censors.” (Felicia Hardison Londre, Theatre Journal, Vol. 69 (1), March, 2017)
Authors and Affiliations
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University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy
Alessandro Clericuzio
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Tennessee Williams and Italy
Book Subtitle: A Transcultural Perspective
Authors: Alessandro Clericuzio
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31927-8
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-31926-1Published: 09 September 2016
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-81156-7Published: 20 June 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-31927-8Published: 31 August 2016
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 225
Number of Illustrations: 6 b/w illustrations
Topics: Theatre History, Twentieth-Century Literature, North American Literature