Thursday, August 12, 2010

1955: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to Summer of the Seventeenth Doll


Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Tennessee Williams. American. 1955. Play. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Neurotic Pollitt family. Big Daddy is dying. plots to gain their father’s property by Gooper, the older son and his wife, and Brick, the younger son and his wife, Maggie, the “cat.”

Vladimir Nabokov. Russian/American. 1955. Novel. Lolita. Middle-aged intellectual has passion for 12-year-old. Plots to seduce her. Odyssey across the U.S. Surprise! She seduces him, then marries Clare Quilty whom he murders. Satirical overview of American culture. Demonstrated Nabokov’s “love affair” with the English language.

William Golding. British. 1955. Novel. Lord of the Flies. Group of boys stranded on an island after a plane crash. They revert to savagery, primitive rites and ritual murder.

Ray Lawler. Australia. 1955. Play. Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. Satirizes the macho mystique of swaggering outdoors workmen and mateship. Authentic picture of Australian working class. Title refers to annual souvenir doll. Disillusionment of middle age.

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