1,619 research outputs found
Thornton Wilder
No full textThis film profile, the first which Thornton Wilder has permitted about his life and work, presents the humanist, the scholar and the dramatic innovator behind the facade of the popular playwright
Plays for Bleecker Street
Get PDFStudio Theatre II present\u27s Thornton Wilder\u27s Plays for Bleecker Street. Medaille Alumnae Room.https://griffinshare.fontbonne.edu/theatre-programs/1006/thumbnail.jp
Thornton Wilder and the Puritan narrative tradition
No full text"Fresh examination of the works of Thornton Wilder emphasizing continuities in American literature from the seventeenth through twentieth centuries. Sees Wilder as a literary descendant of Edward Taylor who drew from the Puritan worldview and tradition. Includes indepth readings of Shadow of a Doubt, The Trumpet Shall Sound, and others"--Provided by publisher
Our Town
Get PDFThe Playwright
Thornton Wilder has been acclaimed one of the most significant playwrights of our time by audiences and critics alike. Born in Madison, Wisconsin, on April 17, 1897, he was the son of an American Consul General. His life has been the American Experience greatly exaggerated.
Educated at Oberlin College and Yale University, Thornton Wilder is a three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. He merited his first honors with the publication of his second novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, in 1928. More recently Mr. Wilder\u27s latest novel, The Eight Day, has become a best-seller.
For some time Mr. Wilder has been at work on a double cycle of fourteen plays which is to be the culmination of his artistic and philosophical thought. Two of these plays, Infancy and Someone From Assisi, were produced at Fontbonne in 1966. His success as a playwright, however, was won by Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth. It was these two plays that merited him two more Pulitzer Prizes. Another great success is The Matchmaker, which has been made into the widely popular musical, Hello Dolly.
The author, himself, stated that Our Town is not offered as a picture of life in a New Hampshire town or as a speculation on life after death. It is, in fact, an attempt to find a value above all price for the smallest events of our daily life.
As a dramatist, Mr. Wilder considers the theatre the greatest of all art forms. As a scholar, he is interested primarily in the facts. As a humanist, he is keenly aware of all the small details of life. He feels that it is imperative that the audience believe what they see on stage and that they are able to relate to the action. Therefore, he strives to recreate, in detail, the simplest things that form the structure of life. This is mind, Thornton Wilder once described his greatest ambition in life ...to be the Poet Laureate of Coney Island.https://griffinshare.fontbonne.edu/theatre-programs/1022/thumbnail.jp
Narración. Sobre Nuestra ciudad de Thornton Wilder
No full textTo what extent Our city depends on the teachings of Gertrude Stein, whom Thornton Wilder referred to as his “Diotima”, is one of the most difficult, and most compensatory, entries in the studies on the work. It has been talk of influence and catalysis, anticipation and coincidence. Wilder had rehearsed in many of his plays in a single act prior to Our City there nunciation of plot and dramaticaction, as well as the stripping of the stage −as Stein herselfhad done in hisownplays− but he had yet to find the final form for what he crave to say. Ten years after The Bridge of San Luis Rey, and despite the fact that he was still working on Heaven, my destination, that definitive form had to allow him to disappear as the author of novels so that daily life, about which there is no room for omniscience, would occupy the his rightful place.Hasta qué punto Nuestra ciudad depende de las enseñanzas de Gertrude Stein, a quien Thornton Wilder se refería como su “Diótima”, es una de las entradas más difíciles, y más compensatorias, de los estudios sobre la obra. Se ha hablado de influencia y de catálisis, de anticipación y coincidencia. Wilder había ensayado en muchas de sus obras en un solo acto, previas a Nuestra ciudad, la renuncia a la trama y la acción dramática, así como el despojamiento del escenario −como había hecho Stein en sus propias obras de teatro−, pero aún había de encontrar la forma definitiva para lo que quería decir. Diez años después de El puente de San Luis Rey , y a pesar de que seguía trabajando en El cielo, mi destino, esa forma definitiva tenía que permitirle desaparecer como autor de novelas para que la vida cotidiana, sobre la que no cabe la omnisciencia, ocupara el lugar que le correspondía
The novels of Thornton Wilder : themes through characterization
No full textThe purpose of this study was to describe the characterization of the major figures in the six novels of Thornton Wilder and to show that two predominant themes, one, moral, the other, religious, are illustrated in the characterization of the major figures. The novels, written during four decades are the following: The Cabala (1926), The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927), The Woman of Andros (1930), Heaven' s My Destination (1934) , The Ides of March (1948), and The Eighth Day (1967).The research entailed a close examination of the six novels and of the criticism regarding each novel. It also included a careful reading of Thornton Wilderts remarks on the novel and on characterization within that genre.The dissertation was divided into two parts: the description of the characterization in the six novels and the illustration of two themes by means of that characterization. The description of the characterization was limited to that of the major individuals in each novel, because it is through their delineation that the two predominant themes are illustrated. The description of the characterization was then divided into three parts: the patterns of characterization in the six novels; the specific delineation of major figures in the first three novels; and the specific delineation of major characters in the last three novels.In separate chapters the moral theme and the religious theme were traced throughout the six novels. Theme was used as a concept expanded upon within the novels. Each theme was shown with variations in intensity and expansion of expression, the variations running sometimes parallel and sometimes contrapuntally. The expansion of the themes by means of variations and repetitions made them resemble melodic motifs in a symphony.The moral theme, one's search for the way to live, was derived from Pamphilus's question in The Woman of Andros: "How does one live?" The religious theme was based on Caesar's question in The Ides of March: "Is there a Mind in or behind the universe which is watching us?" This theme included not only man's search for a divinity or Supreme Being, but his desire for knowledge for his relation to that Being and of the extent to which such a Being governs man's destiny.The description of the characterization disclosed several patterns in Wilder's delineation of a wide range of characters from varying milieux. Reasons were suggested in the three descriptive chapters for the fact that some of these patterns vary while others remain constant. It was noted that Wilder's characterization in the first three novels illustrates his concept of the function of the novel; that his characterization definitely improves in Heaven's My Destination and The Ides of March, where he moves to indirect delineation through speech and action; and that his characterization shows development in his last novel, The Eighth Day, in its expansion to include delineation of characters not only as complex individuals within a group or community, but also as products of their past and their environments and in relation to parental influences.It was suggested that the illustration of the moral and religious themes through the characterization exemplifies both Wilder's justification of narration on the basis of the ideas it presents and his desire to include moral and religious concepts within his works. The study also showed that the moral theme is the more constant and that the religious theme reveals Wilder's progression from ambivalence to serious consideration to emphatic affirmation.Thesis (D. Ed.
Mary Koutsoudaki. — Thornton Wilder: A Nostalgia for the Antique
No full textNiemeyer Mark. Mary Koutsoudaki. — Thornton Wilder: A Nostalgia for the Antique. In: Revue Française d'Etudes Américaines, N°55, février 1993. Les années 1930. p. 97
Epilogue to Wilder
No full text1 ms. score (11 p.) ; 11" x 14.5"For full orchestraIncidental music to Thornton Wilder's Hast thou considered my servant Job?Blair School of Musi
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