Bowen Theory and Family Disintegration in Tennessee Williams's Drama

ISBN-13: 9786138328001 / Angielski / Miękka / 2018 / 236 str.

Najah A. F. Alzoubi

Opis

This book examines the American psychiatrist Murray Bowen's major contribution to his profession, Bowen Family Systems Theory, as a literary-critical tool to interrogate the theme of family disintegration in Tennessee Williams's early and middle plays written between 1945 and 1962. Both Williams and Bowen were writing in a specific intellectual and cultural context in terms of post-World War II attitudes towards the American family and its social function. Bowen theory understands family as an interrelated emotional system, in which a change in the functioning of one part of the system directly relates to changes in the whole system. A parallel to this is found in Williams's plays: members of the family do not function separately, but within the context of the system that shapes their feelings, thoughts, and behaviour. Not only does Bowen help to elucidate a central theme of Williams's writing, but the psychodynamics of therapy are reflected in Williams's dramatic accounts of the plight of the mid-twentieth century family. The four chapters of the book pair eight of Williams's major works using Bowen's eight interlocking concepts.

O autorze

Najah A. F. Alzoubi is an Assistant Professor at the Department of English Language and Literature, Applied Science Private University, Jordan. Her current research focuses on American literature in the twentieth century. Her main areas of interest include the American Drama of the twentieth century, Bowen theory, and Tennessee Williams.