本书中作者集中研究了威廉斯的四部经典戏剧作品：《玻璃动物园》、《欲望号街车》、《热铁皮屋顶上的猫》以及《蜥蜴之夜》。全书以这四部作品中父亲形象的在场或缺席为切入点，力图全面系统地探讨梳理威廉斯戏剧中的救赎理想、这种救赎理想的发展轨迹、以及这种理想变化的社会、文化和哲学背景，分别从存在主义、尼采的“酒神计划”、美国实用主义、和哈贝马斯的交往理性信念这四个不同角度，细致解读威廉斯的四大剧作，揭示这四大剧作内在的发展轨迹。本书强调各部剧作之间的重大思想差异，并努力分析了这种变化的深层社会文化和意识形态原因。

序

Acknowledgements

中文题要

Abstract

Introduction

 Ⅰ. Timeless Oedipal revolts

 Ⅱ. Social Oedipal revolutions since the mid-19th century

 Ⅲ. Hopes of redemption

 Ⅳ. Tennessee Williams as a modernist dramatist

 Ⅴ. Tennessee's complex relationship with his own father C. C.

 Ⅵ. The father in Williams' theatre

Chapter 1 The Glass Menagerie: The Post'Patricide Existential Anarchy

 Ⅰ. Timeless Oedipal revolts

 Ⅱ. The disjointed world as a result of the absence of the father

 Ⅲ. Absence of the father as an expression of bitter disillusionment

Chaoter 2 A Streetcar Named Desire: The Dead Father as a Toxic Legacy

 Ⅰ. Blanche's visitation and her tragic ending

 Ⅱ. Return of the dead father and his re-death--a metaphorical reading

 Ⅲ. Cultural significance of the father's loss: decline of the degraded Apollonian rule and the old Europe

Chapter 3 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: The Glorious Comeback of the Father as a Tribute to American Pragmatism

 Ⅰ. Maggie--the Cat on the hot tin roof

 Ⅱ. Brick--the melancholic prince

 Ⅲ. The father's saving grace and the "brick-wall-breaking operation"

 Ⅳ. A dramatized tribute to King Big Daddy and his America

Chapter 4 The Night of the Iguana : Communication and Mutual Help Replacing the Quest for the Father

 Ⅰ. Everyone is hell and is in hell

 Ⅱ. Everyone can be someone's angel

 Ⅲ. Williams' attempt to liquidate his old self

 Ⅳ. Communicative rationality as the saving grace right at hand

 Ⅴ. Dethroned father figure integrated into the cycle of redemption

Conclusion

Bibliography