A Feminist Study of Otherness in A Streetcar Named Desire and its Iranian Film Adaptation, The Stranger

Zahra Nazemi,Abdolmohammad Movahhed,Hossein Aliakbari Harehdasht

doi:10.21071/ltap.v4i4.10806

Abstract

Movie adaptations of dramatic works have always been very popular. Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) has been adapted several times and in different ways. Feminist and gender studies have examined the important role of Otherness in the construction of female identity. Using their findings, we compare the ways in which the theme of Otherness has been employed in representing female gender identity in Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire and in its Iranian film adaptation, The Stranger (Bigāneh) (2014). The results of the study show that while in both works the female characters' traditional female roles have been highlighted, in the Iranian movie the main female character economically enjoys a relatively higher independence and can have a voice of her own to act against the patriarchal traditions. Besides, whereas in the source text women’s identity is solely associated with their being the Other of men, women in The Stranger stand on a par with their male companions, if not higher than them. The study also reveals that a main reason for these differences originates in the sociopolitical, cultural and historical discrepancies between the contexts in which the film and the play were created.

Highlights

Resumen Las adaptaciones fílmicas de obras de teatro han sido siempre muy populares
We have explored the similarities and differences in gender identity among the major female characters in A Streetcar Named Desire and its Iranian film adaptation, The Stranger
Taking a feminist approach and considering Otherness as the basis upon which gender identity is constructed, we have examined the cultural similarities and differences in the ways women are treated

Summary

Introduction1

Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire, first performed in 1947, is one of the American plays that have been adapted several times in various places and cultures. We aim to compare and contrast Tennessee Williams's play, A Streetcar Named Desire, and its most recent film adaptation, The Stranger, to explore the concept of female Otherness. Hossein Payandeh argues that the gender identity of women is constructed as the result of “internalizing the cultural normative expectations” of each society “about being a woman” (2006: 177). As people try to define themselves, they, create a dichotomy of self vs other, in which they identify themselves as belonging to one group and in relation to the other This seems quite different in a patriarchal society, because women have no option but to accept the identity prescribed for them by men. We come up with two propositions: firstly, that gender identity is constructed socially and secondly that otherness constructs gender identity

Otherness and Gendered Identity in A Streetcar and The Stranger

Conclusion