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THE THORNTON WILDER SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Vol. 8 2013 CONFERENCE REPORT Wilder Panels at ALA Molly Marino Photos: Left to Right: Lindsay Rogers, Nicole Magno, Lincoln Konkle, Hsin Hsieh, Jackson R. Bryer of women amidst changing times. Wilder’s essential woman demonstrates intelligence, practicality, deep emotion, spiritual transcendence, wisdom, fertility, tO SEE wiLdEr’S cOntinuing SigniFicancE leadership, and disruptive feminine aggression. in The ExtEnd far beyond his American classic drama Our Matchmaker, Wilder’s essential femininity, represented Town, one only needed to attend the 24th Annual by dolly Levi, disregards traditional and patriarchal conference of the american Literature association in notions of being and embraces the diversity of women’s boston, May 23–26. it featured three separate panels humanity. Glorifying the role of Woman as the hub of with a total of eleven papers devoted solely to the works the society-sustaining family, usually underappreciated of Thornton Wilder. The topics ranged from the role in patriarchal society, rogers saw wilder sympathize of Newport in Wilder’s last novel to Wilder’s Theater with women and advocate for their advancement, of Engagement to an on-going investigation of Wilder self-actualization, and enfranchisement, subversively Molly Marino and the classics. the panelists presented thought- commencing his literary fight against the rigid heteronormativity of patriarchal society. provoking interpretations and explored new directions Photos: in Wilder research, demonstrating Wilder’s currency Four presenters and a responder mined “thornton and significance to scholarly discussions today. Front: Stephen Rojcewicz, Willard Spiegelman, wilder’s classical Engagements” on the third panel, “the newport of thornton wilder’s Theophilus Mathias Hanses Back: Thomas Buck, Judith Hallett, which was chaired by Judith Hallett from the University North” panel, organized by Sarah Littlefield of Salve Katharine Pilkington of Maryland, college Park. in “recasting greco-roman regina university, looked at the significance of comedy as an american tragic novel: gender, Ethnicity newport, rhode island, as the single locale for wilder’s xia’s recent identification of chinese influences in the and Sexuality in The Woman of Andros,” Katharine vision in his final novel. The three panelists argued that representation of wilder’s Stage Manager. hsin argued Pilkington, from the university of Maryland, examined Theophilus North is more than just a fanciful excursion that the Stage Manager not only tells the story but how in this 1930 novel, based on a second-century bcE down memory lane; rather, it is an incisive commentary also expresses Wilder’s meditation upon life through roman comedy of the same name by the playwright on Newport society. the adaptation of “Jian chang.” She called for a more Terence, Wilder transformed the dramatic and comedic in “Faded glory: images of newport in wilder’s complex reading of Jian chang’s influence on the Stage Latin text into a narrative that examines the desires, Theophilus North,” John Quinn, of Salve regina Manager in Our Town to further demonstrate Wilder’s alienation and sufferings of individuals, particularly University, discussed how the Newport visited attempt to adapt chinese theatrical conventions for the women, living on the margins of their society. Through by Theophilus in the summer of 1926 had largely Western stage. this transformation, Wilder created a tragic scenario disappeared by the 1920s. after world war i began, fewer next Lincoln Konkle, the Executive director of rich with socio-political significance for his American socialites flocked to newport. those who continued the Society, discussed “wilder Towns: Twenty-First readership at the time of the book’s publication. summer visits made no effort to organize great balls century Stagings of the american classic.” you can Stephen rojcewicz, also from the university of as alva vanderbilt and caroline astor had done when read the expanded version of his presentation on pages Maryland, considered “the Spread of Manure: From the gilded age was at its peak. the casino also had 4 and 5. Parasite to calling to Life in The Matchmaker.” Having fallen on hard times in 1915 when it lost the US Open to nicole Magno, a graduate student from the college himself played the role of the parasite in a college Forest Hills. Hence, Quinn argued, Wilder is recalling a of new Jersey, explored “carnivalesque havoc and the production of Plautus’ Menaechmi, wilder, rojcewicz Newport of an earlier age in Theophilus North. Shifting of Gendered Stages in Thornton Wilder’s The contended, refashioned this stock figure of ridicule from Taking her cue from Theophilus, who whispers to Matchmaker and The Eighth Day.” While Wilder often greek and roman new comedy, a personality focused his broken down car “hannah” a line from goethe’s challenges strict gender roles in his works, she argued primarily on getting a meal and manipulating others, poem, Sarah Littlefield in her paper “‘Soon you too will that both The Matchmaker and The Eighth Day reveal into the life-affirming dolly Levi of The Matchmaker. rest’: the Lure of newport for thornton wilder and his preference for a matriarchal rule. in order to create Like wilder himself, dolly calls all the other characters Theophilus,” proposed that Wilder, who too may have this matriarchy, wilder uses elements of bakhtin’s into life. rojcewicz concluded that through creative gotten “his rest” through his persona theophilus, points carnival, a ritualistic event that suspends socioeconomic adaptations of his immediate sources (the british John to the importance of Newport. A haven, indeed a port, hierarchies, celebrates transition, and exposes joyful Oxenford and the austrian Johann nestroy), as well as this not-so-accidental setting provides for Theophilus, relativity. Havoc ensues when the hierarchal patriarchy the greek Menander, the Latin Plautus and terence, and for the nomadic Wilder, both an entry and an is challenged, allowing for the shift between patriarchy and the French Molière, wilder transforms middlebrow exit. Thus Newport helps to shape and define both and matriarchy. by de-crowning the patriarchs, the entertainment into enduring literature, and transmutes Theophilus and Wilder. matriarchal figures, from Mrs. Levi to Mrs. Lansing, the supposedly unsophisticated genre of low farce into in “through the Eyes of theophilus: vintage are able to rise and rule. consequently, Magno posited, the life-giving spirit of carnival. images of the nine cities,” independent scholar daniel Wilder creates a space which, while ruled by women, in “‘Once our brief light has set…’: catullus in Titus discussed how, in Theophilus North, Wilder crafts allows for greater gender equality and illustrates that Thornton Wilder’s The Ides of March,” Mathias hanses of wonderful scenes of a bygone time, reachable only in gender is not innate, but rather a relative performance columbia university examined how wilder intersperses imagination. Titus concluded that, fortunately, images where men and women are merely players. the fictionalized portrayal of the Latin poet catullus and other ephemera exist to help us recreate this visual in “contesting heteronormativity and constructing among portrayals of Julius caesar’s friends, enemies, landscape from the past, thereby bringing the visions of the Essential Woman in Wilder’s Three Plays,” Lindsay and (imagined) correspondents with actual quotations Theophilus himself to life once again. rogers, another graduate student from the college of and interpretations from the ancient writer’s oeuvre. Organized by the Thornton Wilder Society and New Jersey, argued that through Our Town, The Skin of As Hanses read The Ides against catullus’s poems, chaired by President Jackson r. bryer, a panel on Our Teeth, and The Matchmaker, Wilder allies himself he pointed out areas where Wilder’s presentation of “thornton wilder and the theater of Engagement” with his female characters who are forced to reckon ancient material is particularly sophisticated and well- offered four different perspectives on Wilder’s works. with the oppressive hegemonic discourse of patriarchal grounded in classical scholarship. in the process, in “thornton wilder’s Jian chang in Our Town, the society. in Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, Wilder Hanses claimed, Wilder to an extent cast himself as Stage Play,” hsin hsieh, a graduate student from the details the markers of essential femininity through catullus and ultimately presented his novel as the next national university of taiwan, expanded on yuan mothers and daughters who represent generations (continued on page 8) 7 THE THORNTON WILDER SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Vol. 8 2013 (Conference Report continued from page 7) THE THORNTON WILDER SOCIETY link in an artistic chain that reaches back at least into and university, why he felt the need to allude to the first century bcE. ancient mores when dealing with contemporary The Alcestiad represents Wilder’s twentieth-century economic and political issues or to handle his MEMBERSHIP FORM version of a greek tragic tetralogy. in his presentation political and social views through historical filters. “Sophoclean Echoes in wilder’s The Alcestiad,” Tom And one wonders how we might compare him buck from the university of buffalo acknowledged to more conventional historical novelists (Mary Membership in The Thornton Wilder Wilder’s debts to Aeschylus and Euripides, but he renault comes to mind) whose minds were focused Society is open to scholars, proposed that Wilder also owes a great deal to Sophocles more unvaryingly on the ancient world. Wilder’s teachers, professionals in the arts, in the construction of his individual scenes. Wilder lament for the loss of a “religious tremendum” in and members of the public interested in recasts the plague scene at the beginning of Oedipus the modern world encouraged in him a nostalgic the life and legacy of Thornton Wilder. Tyrannos and the apotheosis at the end of Oedipus at backward glance. At the same time, an updating of Colonus for his third act. This rewriting of Sophoclean both gender roles and genre in his use of Terrence, Annual dues are $30.00.

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