The Theatre of Lost Time. Marcel Proust read by Tennessee Williams

Abstract

The author of the article analyzes the influence of Marcel Proust's work on the dramatic works of Tennessee Williams, especially the drama The Glass Menagerie, also known from the Hollywood film version. Proust's motifs, such as time, memory and its mechanisms, play an important role in this play. Like Proust, Williams does not hide autobiographical elements in his work. What is also noteworthy in The Glass Menagerie is the use of musical motifs inspired by Proust's novel and the search for similarities between literary characters and characters from paintings. Although Proust did not write plays and Williams did not leave behind any novels, they shared a love for the theatre and the belief that memory is a kind of spectacle, and that the stage is a particularly appropriate place to talk about the past.