A Study Of Realistic And Non-realistic Features In Lanford Wilson’s Community Plays

Lanford Wilson (1937-2011) was one of the most outstanding playwrights on Off-Off-Broadway. Involving various aspects of life, many of his works enjoy a lasting popularity. His plays can be generally classified into three categories:plays of individual, plays of family, and plays of community. A small town modeled after Missouri is no doubt a community, but to some extent, cafes, bars or hotels can also be considered as communities. Wilson always paid close attention to those marginalized outsiders, who are unable to integrate into the main-stream society. Without a stable job, they often hang around cafes, bars and hotels. Places where all kinds of social outcasts stay become special communities. Wilson created many community plays during the1960s and the1970s. This thesis chooses three of them as research cases to explore the realistic and non-realistic features in his community plays, respectively Balm in Gilead, The Rimers of Eldritch and The Hot-l Baltimore.Based on the theories of many other realism theorists, this thesis mainly centers on Rene Wellek’s theory of realism. Starting from the two basic principles of realism,"objective representation" and "typical characters in typical context", this thesis will first explore the realistic features in Wilson’s community plays. Non-realistic features means what is not or lack of realistic features. Modernism came into being as a challenge against realism, while postmodernism is a literary trend which opposes both realism and modernism. The three literary trends interwove with each other in the twentieth century. Thus, after reviewing theories of modernism and postmodernism, this thesis tries to explore the non-realistic features in Wilson’s community plays from the perspectives of symbolism, uncertainty and non-realistic stylistic features. Focusing on social reality, Wilson’s community plays skillfully combine features of realism, modernism and postmodernism into his plays. The use of varied writing techniques to objectively reflect the characteristics of the time strengthens the lifelikeness of the play. While appreciating those realistic and non-realistic features, audience also gets inspiration in life.