The limits of realism in The Mutilated, by Tennessee Williams: expressionism and verfremdungseffekt

Abstract

This paper starts the research reading the hesitations of literary and theatrical criticism in its proposition to classify Tennessee Williams’s (1911-1983) dramatic writing, specially the critics that try to restrict the foregoing playwright works under the term “Realism”. Adverse to this criticism, the production notes from The Glass Menagerie (1944) – Williams’s Plastic Theatre manifesto – reveals the author intentions to get rid of orthodox Realism theatre conventions in his plays. Finally, the study points in Williams’s The Mutilated (1967) some remarkable qualities – expressionist techniques and uses of brechtian Verfremdungseffekt – that allude to a distinct conception of Realism.

Keywords

• tennessee williams
• realismo
• plastic theatre
• expressionismo
• verfremdungseffekt