An individual peace: The work and life of William Inge.

摘要

My dissertation examines virtually all of William Inge's published and unpublished texts. Exemplifying the shifting emphasis of recent biographical criticism, my study elucidates the interrelationship of Inge's work, private life, and sexual preference. Whereas traditional bio-criticism understood the reconstructed life of the artist as a context or a cause by which to translate the work, this approach understands the life as another text: the artist is attempting to modify his way of being through writing, so that his work, in the end, is himself.; As I explore recurring conflicts, characters, and themes in Inge's drama and fiction (much of which is autobiographical), I show how they are related to the style of his sexual life yet signify his obsession to transform that life through the process of writing. Unable to accept his homosexuality, Inge was shamed by his desires and suffered the constant anxiety of exposure and unrelenting fear of rejection. He attempted to normalize his sexuality by dramatizing what he believed was its etiology; to confront societal persecution of difference and restriction of sexual expression; to investigate the dehumanization of homosexuals forced to live secret, guilty lives or correspond to cultural specifications.; I employ a variety of critical strategies: Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, feminism, gender theory, cultural history. Chapter One functions as introduction of primary materials, relevant biographical detail, and critical approaches. In Chapter Two, I examine plays and stories whose focus is an oedipal relationship; Inge compulsively explored the dynamics and consequences of a mother-son dyad. Supported by his own psychoanalysis and motivated by his desire to displace responsibility onto the mother, he consistently presents homosexuality as one consequence. Chapter Three synthesizes an evaluation of the critical reception of Inge's plays about women and an analysis of the relevant texts. Attempting to invalidate his realistic portrayals of women, male critics responded with homophobic attacks, a disguise for their anger and anxiety at Inge's feminism--his marginality facilitating both understanding and empathy for another oppressed group. Chapter Four examines mostly unpublished material concerning the issues of homosexuality, writing, and suicide.