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Fiction and Film Study Guide Midterm: 3 March 2011 Part I: Factual Knowlege A Streetcar Named Desire (Play) Tennessee Williams Openly gay Major Characters Stanley Kowalski Stella DuBois Kowalski Blanche DuBois Harold Mitchell (Mitch) Themes Atmosphere of decay -Old South dying Blue piano/Polka music Male vs. female Biological Masculine vs. feminine Cultural People in their respective places I.e., women in the bedroom *Place Past (Both the South and Blanche bear a burden of the past) Lies/fallacy/artificiality Realism vs. “magic” Song about paper moon Tin flowers Light vs. dark Light is revealing Outside vs. inside Façade vs. reality Lamp shade Visibility Male domination Animalism (Stanley’s description) Sex vs. violence Death vs. desire Sexual intimacy => Stanley and Stella’s fix-it Angel/whore dichotomy Events Stanley’s introduction – MEAT! Blanche’s arrival – delicate (or is she?) Stella steps out of place (2 times) and is met with violence/sent back to bedroom
Stella leaves when Stanley hits her/comes back and they have sex Blanche’s constant washing Mitch and Blanche’s date Stanley tells Stella the truth about Blanche Mitch stands Blanche up, then comes over drunk and…psychological rape number one Blanche freaks out a little, Stanley comes home and…literal rape Stella sends Blanche away…psychological rape number two A Streetcar Named Desire (Film, 1951) Directed by Elia Kazan Major Characters Stanley Kowalski – Marlon Brando Stella DuBois Kowalski – Kim Hunter Blanche DuBois – Vivien Leigh Harold Mitchell (Mitch) – Karl Malden Themes Light vs. shadow Chiaroscuro lighting Mirrors Costumes Blanche in chiffon Stella in tailored cotton Reality vs. fantasy Events Changes from play to movie Location of Mitch and Blanche’s date/talk No mention of homosexuality (censorship code) Addition of scene in machine shop in which Stanley tells Mitch about Blanche Blanche doesn’t ever finish her joke Addition of policeman after Mitch and Blanche’s argument After Blanche leaves, Stella doesn’t go back to Stanley The Moviegoer Walker Percy Born in Birmingham Father committed suicide, mother later died Form and style First person Nihilism – nothing has a purpose, everything is meaningless Existentialism – individuals find meaning in themselves Major Characters
The Truman Show (1998) Directed by Peter Weir Major Characters Truman – Jim Carrey Meryl Burbank – Laura Linney Marlon – Noah Emmerich Sylvia – Natascha McElhone Christof – Ed Harris Themes Voyeurism Scopophilia Quest for truth/purpose Identity Existentialism Fake vs. controlled Utopia Capital T-Truth vs. lowercase t-truth Real Authenticity Meaning Reality Consumerism Commercialism God/Fate Events Truman’s fear of water shown Truman’s first clue that something is weird – light falls onto the street Meeting/losing Sylvia Losing/finding his father Leaving the island/rejecting Christof/the Creator Key Terms The South Old South New South Immigration Globalization Civil rights Race = plural Place (!) Agrarian vs. urban Corporation Wal-mart Borders/boundaries Transit zones
Movement Open vs. closed Lines drawn to keep people out/separate Mechanism for self-ID OR Lines where cultures corss Place Past Immigration Work force labor Darker side of capitalism Proletariat Cheap, good for business Transnational Economic relations Postcolonialism Vs. maybe still colonialism Regional vs. national Local vs. global Uplift Colonial vocabulary The “white man’s burden” Duty to uplift everyone who isn’t white, i.e., African-Americans Boundaries: literal/social/intellectual Jim Crow era Films – visual technology reinforcing the whiteness of the South Black face Modernity Mass media Interpolated – absorbed/brought in by advertising, etc. Writers vs. writing Southern vs. southern writer Non-traditional New stores about south Sexual politics Binary/binarism Love vs. desire Chivalry Masculine vs. feminine – cultural Male vs. female – biological Foreshadowing Past (burden of the south/Blanche) Outside vs. inside Façade vs. reality Light vs. shade Sex vs. violence Motif Visibility
