Hard and Brittle: Subversive and Subjective Language in The Glass Menagerie
Disciplines
Gender and Sexuality | Women's Studies
Abstract (300 words maximum)
Due to ongoing reports that are rapidly emerging about the harassment and unfair treatment disabled persons, and women, face daily, it is important to reexamine Tennessee Williams’s play The Glass Menagerie. The play was published in 1944 and features only four people, including the supposedly disabled Laura Wingfield. Laura’s impairment is both the driving force of the plot, as well as the reason for the title. Laura is also treated and made to feel like the delicate glass figurines she handles by the subjective language used when speaking to her. For this project, I examine the play and the language used by, as well as about, Laura. I conduct a textual analysis to determine the lasting effects on Laura, and hope to add to existing research regarding the danger of subjecting women and disabled persons to stigmatizing language.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
RCHSS - English
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Dr. Bohannon
Hard and Brittle: Subversive and Subjective Language in The Glass Menagerie
Due to ongoing reports that are rapidly emerging about the harassment and unfair treatment disabled persons, and women, face daily, it is important to reexamine Tennessee Williams’s play The Glass Menagerie. The play was published in 1944 and features only four people, including the supposedly disabled Laura Wingfield. Laura’s impairment is both the driving force of the plot, as well as the reason for the title. Laura is also treated and made to feel like the delicate glass figurines she handles by the subjective language used when speaking to her. For this project, I examine the play and the language used by, as well as about, Laura. I conduct a textual analysis to determine the lasting effects on Laura, and hope to add to existing research regarding the danger of subjecting women and disabled persons to stigmatizing language.