PAPER 2 INTERTEXTUALITY

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD:

NO PAIN WHATSOEVER - man who refuses to accept how unhappy and unwell his wife really is. After she attempts suicide, he convinces himself it wasn’t serious, repeating ‘no pain whatsoever’ to avoid facing reality. Story shows his denial and emotional detachment and imagins how the problem may be worse

DOCTOR JACK O LANTERN - short story about an orphan who is cast out (smells) feels alienated and pressured to conform to social norms and in the end no one accepts him, vandalises school with lewd images

BUILDERS - writer, cynical about the world, focuses on working class life, ambition and emotional disillusionment. Collection named ‘11 kinds of lonliness’, set in a construction environment, casual NYC slang, focuses on the builders, unfulfilled ambition and masculinity.

THE EASTER PARADE - about 2 sisters, Sarah and Emily two children of divorced parents. The novel follows them over the 4 decades as they grow to become very different women. Sarah suffers from an unhappy marriage and Emily struggles with a serious of love affairs.

JODY ROLLED THE BONES - military theme, unfaithfulness, women are unnamed and silent, written pre RR, disillusionment and replacement (coming out of a time of wartime masculinity) inescapable past/anxiety, coping with war. The sterile environment (settings similar to a VA hospital/training camp). Military camp, civilian steals wife, focus on the ‘hell’ of personal experience, within a broader historical setting but he finds purpose within the army.

RABBIT RUN BY JOHN UPDIKE - 1960, another example of the 1950s suburban novels, explores the stifling nature of suburban life and family responsability in Pennsylvania

1950s American suburban novel subgenre often explore the tension between the ‘American Dream’ of prosperity and the underlying anxiety, conformity and marital discontent of the era. Key works often feature settings with manicured lawns hiding deep dissatisfaction

Use of the novel here (allows flashbacks, internal monologues) whereas a play its all on stage, different effects of dramatisation.

STREETCAR:

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF - after streetcar, plantation lifestyle, mimics the decline of the Belle Reve plantation

HENRIK IBSEN - dolls house, takes the domestic and puts in on stage (like the Kowalski’s apartment), influenced Williams but Ibsen is a realist which is more or less the opposite of Williams.

GLASS MENAGERIE - the play that made Williams. About a fading southern Belle, husband abandoned her, daughter must get married and her son is a wastrel, pressures on women and modern life, changing ideas of courtship

GONE WITH THE WIND - 1930s, Scarlett O’Hara is the protagonist, Blanche tries to present herself like this (had a plantaion, lost it, tried to rebuild her life) but ends badly for Blanche. Most influential book/film of the era, old south! Williams is challenging this idalisation/glorification of the civil war era (eg slavery)

1940s American drama was defined by a shift towards psycholigical realism and poetic introspection, moving away from 1930s social melodrama. Dominated by Miller and Williams, it examined the flaws of the american dream and post war anxieties. Especially for outsiders, eg Williams.

MILLER - DEATH OF A SALESMAN - failure of the american dream, play is the final 24hrs before he commits suicide

KEY ELEMENTS - psychological realism/naturalism (plays shifted focus from external action to the inner life, anxieties and motivations of characters) Poetic realism (Williams introduced a style that combined realistic characters with poetic dialogue and atmosphere) social and moral criticisms (Millers works focused on moral responsibility guilt and the decline of the american dream in postwar society - eg all my sons 1947)

Production style - while acting was becoming more antualistic, stage sts often blended realistic detail with symbolic lighting or non-realistic design elements (like the scrims in glass menagarie) to represent memory or pyscholigical states)

FEMININE GOSPELS

POSTMODERN POET - subverts traditional forms or narratives, highlights feminist perspective (second wave especially), use of dramatic monolgues, undermines, revises, questions established myths whilst employing accessible language

STANDING FEMALE NUDE - Deals with the plight of a woman who is considered to be on the very edge of society, invents the persona of a 'river whore' (a prostitute) with a cynical outlook on the world. She questions the value of art and the motives of the artists, highlighting the double standard in society.​ She is regarded by society as an immoral woman who sells her body, while he is regarded as a genius.

SELLING MANHATTAN - Uses a dramatic shift in voice to reveal how the environmental crisis of the 21st century has its roots in the toxic rise of capitalism centuries earlier​. The poem takes it's starting point during the notorious bargain struck in 1626 between the Dutch and the Indigenous tribes who were unaware of the concept of buying and selling land. £24.00 worth of glass beads for thousands of acres of land that would later become Manhattan.

THE MEANTIME - The poem(s) deal with the subjects of time, death, love and loss. The mood is pessimistic with no hint at the end of a spiritual uplift or hope for the future

THE WORLDS WIFE - Focuses on either well known female figures or fictional counterparts to well known male figures​. Looks at women previously obscured by men (eg Myra Hindley, Queen Kong, Mrs Midas, Queen Herod)

RAPTURE - A poem that describes the infatuation, passion, joy and final agony of a love affair with an unnamed woman​. It’s the story of a whole relationship - from the first, tentative flirting texts to the deep inescapable passion, to the arguments and the shouting, to the breaking and drifting apart​RAPTURE – as a word has a religious significance.

SINCERITY - Issues covered range from personal memories to a wider worldview​. There are allusions to Trump (Gorilla) and other powerful figures from taught history. In common, is their narcissism and view of the insignificance of those who served them, either from choice or coercion. Discusses Grenville tower,