Date of Award
Spring 5-24-2015
Document Type
Undergraduate Honors Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts in English
Department
English
Advisor
Fred Robinson
Abstract
This paper seeks to understand why visionary elements are sometimes implemented in otherwise realist works of theatre. Beginning with the father of realism, Henrik Ibsen, and discussing some of the social and domestic conventions present in his work, the paper then moves through an analysis of visionary elements, as they have been implemented in the following works: August Wilson's The Piano Lesson (1987) and Two Trains Running (1990), Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949), and Elizabeth Egloff's The Swan (1993). In doing so, the paper investigates how visionary elements can be effective in enhancing realist themes such as entrapment, escape, and the impact of the past on the present, while also commenting on the characteristics of realism itself.
Digital USD Citation
Zentner, Sarah, "Making the Vision a Reality: Staging the Unreal in Realist Theatre" (2015). Undergraduate Honors Theses. 6.
https://digital.sandiego.edu/honors_theses/6