Jacqueline O’Connor is professor of English at Boise State University.

In her introduction to this volume, O’Connor cites Williams’s diary and letters to indicate his 'knowledge of the legal ramifications and the specific laws that restricted homosexual activity' during and after WW II. In chapter 1 O'Connor discusses 'compassionate views of difference' in the transgressive characters of Streetcar Named Desire (1947) and Night of the Iguana (1961). In the chapters that follow she examines Williams’s short story 'One Arm,' which 'challenged the public discourse of disgust that supported the criminalization of diverse sexual activity'; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) and Orpheus Descending (1957) as demonstrating Williams’s sympathy for the 'fugitive kind' during the period of McCarthyism; and Williams’s controversial Memoirs (1975) as 'an act of witness to an age of transition.' O’Connor describes dramas from Williams’s last two decades in terms of postmodernism and doom, but she also suggests that the late works 'become more open in their diverse representations of sexuality.' Strengths of this study include the critical context O'Connor offers and her comments on multiple versions of Williams’s plays in light of major Supreme Court rulings. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Illegal Bodies1. Privacy and Identity2. The Power of Disgust3. The Fugitive Kind4. The Politics of RecognitionConclusion: With Dignity for AllBibliography

Jacqueline O’Connor is professor of English at Boise State University.

In her introduction to this volume, O’Connor cites Williams’s diary and letters to indicate his 'knowledge of the legal ramifications and the specific laws that restricted homosexual activity' during and after WW II. In chapter 1 O'Connor discusses 'compassionate views of difference' in the transgressive characters of Streetcar Named Desire (1947) and Night of the Iguana (1961). In the chapters that follow she examines Williams’s short story 'One Arm,' which 'challenged the public discourse of disgust that supported the criminalization of diverse sexual activity'; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) and Orpheus Descending (1957) as demonstrating Williams’s sympathy for the 'fugitive kind' during the period of McCarthyism; and Williams’s controversial Memoirs (1975) as 'an act of witness to an age of transition.' O’Connor describes dramas from Williams’s last two decades in terms of postmodernism and doom, but she also suggests that the late works 'become more open in their diverse representations of sexuality.' Strengths of this study include the critical context O'Connor offers and her comments on multiple versions of Williams’s plays in light of major Supreme Court rulings. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Illegal Bodies1. Privacy and Identity2. The Power of Disgust3. The Fugitive Kind4. The Politics of RecognitionConclusion: With Dignity for AllBibliography

Jacqueline O’Connor is professor of English at Boise State University.

In her introduction to this volume, O’Connor cites Williams’s diary and letters to indicate his 'knowledge of the legal ramifications and the specific laws that restricted homosexual activity' during and after WW II. In chapter 1 O'Connor discusses 'compassionate views of difference' in the transgressive characters of Streetcar Named Desire (1947) and Night of the Iguana (1961). In the chapters that follow she examines Williams’s short story 'One Arm,' which 'challenged the public discourse of disgust that supported the criminalization of diverse sexual activity'; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) and Orpheus Descending (1957) as demonstrating Williams’s sympathy for the 'fugitive kind' during the period of McCarthyism; and Williams’s controversial Memoirs (1975) as 'an act of witness to an age of transition.' O’Connor describes dramas from Williams’s last two decades in terms of postmodernism and doom, but she also suggests that the late works 'become more open in their diverse representations of sexuality.' Strengths of this study include the critical context O'Connor offers and her comments on multiple versions of Williams’s plays in light of major Supreme Court rulings. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Illegal Bodies1. Privacy and Identity2. The Power of Disgust3. The Fugitive Kind4. The Politics of RecognitionConclusion: With Dignity for AllBibliography