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- Title
Anxious Nation and White Fashion: Suddenly Last Summer in the Swedish folkhem.
- Authors
GINDT, DIRK
- Abstract
This article investigates how Tennessee Williams' play Suddenly Last Summer, as staged in Sweden in 1959, communicated sexual and racial anxieties. It aims to tease out the importance of fashion for the articulation of the closet and the expression of the simultaneous absence and presence of the queer subject in the play. Looking at the omnipresent use of whiteness of certain key costumes, the essay further proposes the concept of white Gothic fashion and argues that this assumed a whole new meaning when staged in a social and historical context that was not only characterized by institutionalized homophobia, but also promoted white hegemony and the control of women's bodies. Placing particular emphasis on the socio-historical context of Sweden in the 1950s, the article demonstrates how performance studies and fashion theory can engage in a critical cultural analysis and help us understand national emotions, concerns and anxieties.
- Subjects
SWEDEN; WILLIAMS, Tennessee, 1911-1983; THEATER; DRAMA; SUDDENLY Last Summer (Play : Williams); RACISM; FASHION; RACIAL identity of white people; HUMAN sexuality
- Publication
Nordic Theatre Studies, 2009, Vol 21, p99
- ISSN
0904-6380
- Publication type
Article