DOSSIERS

DOSSIER ’S IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURE

 The first notable adaptation of the play is the 1951 film directed by and starring Vivian Leigh, , and . This adaptation, though maintaining the general theme of the play, makes alterations because of the moral codes that existed in Hollywood. For example, in the original play, Tennessee Williams reveals that Blanche's husband is homosexual and his suicide is because she catches him in bed with another man. Another change is the rape scene. On stage, it is very visual and graphic; in the movie the scene is done in shadows, off- camera. Vivian Leigh wins an Academy Award for Best Actress.

 The play was filmed as made-for-TV movies four times following the original motion picture, including one foreign film in Hong Kong. These included a 1956 showing directed by Louis Mottura, a 1984 showing directed by , and another in 1995 directed by Glenn Jordan. The Hong Kong production aired in 1993.  The Simpsons Episode 402 – “A Streetcar Named Marge”. Marge is cast in a musical production of A Streetcar Named Desire as Blanche DuBois after the play director sees Marge’s deep-seated depression when dealing with an uncaring Homer. She struggles with a scene where she has to shove a glass bottle into the brutish (played by Ned Flanders), but manages to get over it by imagining Homer as Stanley. Marge begins to get angry with Homer as she sees parallels between him and Stanley. At the end of the musical, Marge believes Homer doesn’t pay any attention to her and confronts him with hostility. However, Homer explains that he was genuinely moved by Blanche’s situation. Marge realizes that Homer really did watch the musical, and the two happily leave the theater.

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 1999 Spanish movie and Academy Award-winning foreign film All About My Mother, directed by Pedro Almodóvar, references the play. In the movie, a mother takes her son to a stage version of the play because the star of the play is his favorite actress. As he's crossing the street to get her autograph, he is hit. As with most of Almodóvar's movies, weird things happen as the movie progresses.

 References to Streetcar can be found in other influential media. The rap group Wu- Tang Clan mentions A Streetcar Named Desire in "Triumph," a song of the album Wu-Tang forever: As the world turns, I spread like germs Bless the globe with the pestilence, the hard-headed never learn It's my testament to those burned Play my position in the game of life, standin firm on foreign land, jump the gun out the fryin pan, into the fire Transform into the Ghostrider, a six-pack and A Streetcar Named Desire, who got my back?

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 The Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival is held annually in the famous French Quarter in New Orleans, and has been for the last eighteen years. It started as a last effort to save the city’s plummeting moral and economic disaster. Since New Orleans is the birthplace of Williams’ finest work, A Streetcar Named Desire, city official thought it appropriate that he become the icon for the festival (Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival). Among many events featured in the late March , the “Stanley and Stella Shouting Contest,” where contestants sport tight, torn t-shirt while giving impressions of Stanley in his drunken desperation, screaming for Stella to come down.  In the episode "The Pen" of Seinfeld, the character Elaine takes too many pills and acts strange. When she finds out that another character has the name "Stella," Elaine acts out the scene from A Streetcar Named Desire where Stanley Kowalski yells out Stella's name. This shows the influence of the play because in this example, it affected what a person thinks of when they think of the name "Stella."

In the The Golden Girls, promiscuous widow Blanche Deveraux (Rue McClanahan) seems to be a reference to Blanche DuBois not only for the resemblance in the characters’ names but also for other coincidences. A Southern belle, Blanche grew up as the apple of her father's eye on a plantation outside of Atlanta, Georgia, and always referred to him as “Big Daddy” – a clear allusion to Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Blanche was portrayed as man-hungry, and she clearly had the most male admirers—and stories detailing various sexual encounters—over the course of the series. Like Blanche DuBois, Deveraux had a love-hate relationship with her sister, and she found it hard to accept her brother’s homosexuality – just as DuBois could not accept her husband’s.

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DOSSIER WALT WHITMAN AND CONTEMPORARY CULTURE

I. WHITMAN AND MUSIC •Juan Manuel Serrat, Catalonian songwriter and singer, recites lines from “Song of Myself” in Spanish (1974): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6eRBmH8mzQ

•Van Morrison, Irish singer and songwriter, includes references to Whitman and Leaves of Grass in the song “Rave On John Donne” included in the LP Inarticulate Speech of the Heart (1983) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_EqDDqo3Uw&feature=related

Rave on John Donne, rave on thy Holy fool Down through the weeks of ages In the moss borne dark dank pools (...) Rave on, Walt Whitman, nose down in wet grass Rave on fill the senses On nature's bright green shady path

• Billy Bragg (English musician and left-wing activist) & Wilco (US alternative rock band), in the LP Mermaid Avenue (1998) include a song entitled “Walt Whitman's Niece”, based on Woody Guthrie’s lyrics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GDU6ns2mRM

II. WHITMAN AND THE SIMPSOMS “Mother Simpson", the eighth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season and first aired on November 19, 1995, includes references to Whitman and Leaves of Grass. Homer visits what he believes is her grave, only to discover that it belongs to Walt Whitman. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDqq_13IIyo

III. WHITMAN AND ADVERTISING: Levi’s “Go Forth” Campaign: In 2009, Levi’s launched Go Forth, a new voice and campaign for the Levi’s brand and Levi’s 501 jeans. The campaign is inspired by the passion Walt Whitman felt for the potential of America and promise of the future. Films were created to demonstrate Levi’s awareness and relevance in the world through “America” and “Pioneers! O Pioneers” accompanied by readings of Whitman’s poems of the same name. Outdoor and printed material evoked the spirit of the new pioneer—today’s progressive—by featuring such optimistic statements as “Will work for better times,” “All I need is all I got,” and “Tough 5 as your spirit.” Combined with a digital re-editing of the Declaration of Independence and a call for young pioneers to create a new portrait of America online, the Go Forth campaign infused new energy into an authentic and beloved brand that had been somewhat quiet for too long.

Levi's - America (Go Forth) Commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdW1CjbCNxw

Levi's - OPioneers! (Go Forth) Commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG8tqEUTlvs

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DOSSIER HENRY DAVID THOREAU IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURE

Origins: where it all came from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden: http://transcendentalism.tamu.edu/authors/thoreau/walden/

Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience”: http://transcendentalism.tamu.edu/authors/thoreau/civil/

American Transcendentalism: http://transcendentalism.tamu.edu/

Relevant people influenced by Thoreau Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Leo Tolstoy, John F. Kennedy, Ernest Hemingway… and many others Check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_(Thoreau)#cite_note-17

Other interesting influences Thoreau in Dead Poet’s Society (Peter Weir, Buena Vista Pictures, 1989). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U91Wl2YpkD8

Thoreau in The Simpsons: http://americanaejournal.hu/vol4no2/beck

A video on the influence of “Civil Disobedience”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCjtgWQR5RM

Charles Ives’ Sonata: “Concord, Massachussets—Thoreau.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8_r7B0k9SI

“Thou Little Bud Of Being, Edith Named”, sung by David Paul Mesler; lyrics by Henry David Thoreau: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGtwGzYXURs

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DOSSIER JOHN SMITH’S POCAHONTAS IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURE

Origins: where it all came from John Smith’s General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles (1624) “John Smith’s Letter to Queen Anne” (1616) Check “The Pocahontas Archive”: http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/pocahontas/bib.php

Figuring it all out: attempts at finding the truth in the story “John Smith’s Bold Endeavor”: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/john-smith.html “Pocahontas”: http://apva.org/rediscovery/page.php?page_id=26 “Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend”: http://www.nps.gov/jame/historyculture/pocahontas- her-life-and-legend.htm “The Pocahontas Myth”: http://www.powhatan.org/pocc.html “Did Pocahontas Save Captain John Smith?”: http://vision.stanford.edu/~birch/pocahontas.html

The evolution of the image: “Changing Images of Pocahontas”: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/images- pocahontas.html

Movies: Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg. Pocahontas. Walt Disney Pictures, 1995. Tom Ellery and Bradley Raymond. Pocahontas II. Walt Disney Pictures, 1998. Terrence Malick. The New World. New Line Cinema, 2005.

New ways of seeing Pocahontas: James Cameron. Avatar. 20th Century Fox, 2010. Neil Young’s song Pocahontas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaPWtX1xG3s Miley Cyrus disguised as Pocahontas: http://tublogdeteens.blogspot.com.es/2009/11/miley- dsifrazada-de-pocahontas.html 8

Barbie Pocahontas: http://www.todocoleccion.net/muneca-disney-barbie-pocahontas- mattel-1995-meeko-trenzador-nueva~x30584001 Dressing Pocahontas game: http://www.tojuegos.com/jugar-peppy-pocahontas-online- 8051.html

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DOSSIER JOHN STEINBECK’S THE GRAPES OF WRATH IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURE

The Grapes of Wrath and music

Woody Guthrie’s “The Ballad of Tom Joad” (1940) and read the lyrics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKWGAGPy_kw (song) http://www.univie.ac.at/Anglistik/easyrider/data/TOMJOAD.HTM (lyrics)

Bruce Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad” (1995) and the 1997 Rage Against the Machine’s version of the same song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKKpmbcSe5E (Bruce Springsteen’s version) http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bruce+springsteen/the+ghost+of+tom+joad_20025049. html (Bruce Springsteen’s lyrics) 10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqnMrynpq9U (Rage Against the Machine’s version) Mumford and Sons’ “Dust Bowl Dance” (2009)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThVzhyVP4zk&feature=related (song) http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858798625/#73016068769 (lyrics) Kris Kristofferson’s “Here Comes that Rainbow Again” (2003)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCXK3-Hw4bo (song) http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858621067/ (lyrics) http://www.putlocker.com/file/4F5VPPR2TWG08W04# (minutes 45:40-48:35. The kids scene in the film)

The Grapes of Wrath and television.

South Park’s episode “Over Logging” (Season 12, Episode 6)

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http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s12e06-over-logging (episode)

The Simpsons episode “The Twisted World of Marge Simpson” (Season 08, Episode 11)

http://www.tubeplus.me/player/1473669/The_Simpsons/season_8/episode_11/The_T wisted_World_of_Marge_Simpson/%22 (The Simpsons episode. Minutes 06:19-06:50)

The Grapes of Wrath and politics

President Barack Obama’s 2004 keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention. Tony Blair’s 2006 keynote speech at the Labour Party’s Conference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWynt87PaJ0 (Obama’s speech. Minute 12:05) http://www.mazalien.nl/weblog/there-is-no-black-america/ (Obama’s speech transcript) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66dq81eI-fc (Tony Blair’s speech. Minute 13:29) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/5382590.stm (Tony Blair’s speech transcript)

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