Teaching Strategies
In order to ensure that my students are capable of demonstrating perceptive knowledge and understanding of a work, we examine a great deal about the work itself as well as the author and the time period when it was written. For this unit, students will need to create a variety of connections between the author, the text A Streetcar Named Desire, the audience or reader or viewer (depending upon the medium), and the world. I will need to teach my students background information on World War II, particularly surrounding traditional women’s roles in the United States prior to the war and the changes in those roles during the war. Students also will need to evaluate the dynamic nature of these changes in a post-war U.S., with special consideration paid to exploring multiple viewpoints on those changes. Students will need background information about the French Quarter in New Orleans, a specific setting that is symbolic in several ways given the themes and characters presented in the drama. Students will benefit from a short lesson about Williams’ life in order to highlight the representation of gender roles, sexuality and homosexuality, and characterization in the play. Having previously studied a selection of short stories by Anton Chekhov in Year 1 of the course, my students will discuss the influence of Chekhov’s technique on Williams’ writing with regard to realism. Finally, I will have my students explore the use of sound and language as dramatic devices in this play, which both contribute to Williams’ unique aspects of technique in this drama.
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