Post -war America and myth in the drama of Tennessee Williams

الملخص EN

This article explores the form and meanings that myth and ritual assume in selected plays by American modernist playwright Tennessee Williams.

Methodologically, it relies on the anthropological, psychological and literary paradigms borrowed from James George Frazer's, Carl Gustav Jung's and Northrop Frye's major works on myth and ritual.

We will attempt to show that in his quest to translate modern man's metamorphosis and tragedy in post World War II America, Williams reterritorilizes Greek myth and ritual mainly of vegetation deities.

We will demonstrate that compared to his contemporaries mainly Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams stands as the playwright of the 'other America', in that while the former were acclaimed as America's conventional playwrights, Williams was discarded as the playwright who profaned America's cultural and religious conventions.