Abstract

Tennessee Williams’ famous play A Streetcar Named Desire uses a discourse that warrants explication in terms of certain popular parameters of feminist reading. The author’s attitude with regard to phallocentric orientation is rather complicated with the discourse used in the play falling into two distinct categories, that is, the dialogues attributed to characters and the stage directions. In fact, just as deconstructing the oppositions helps establish the sexist orientation in the play, defeating the attempts at entitization/totalization in respect of ideas and characterization, the author too develops fractured dimensions in the light of the notion of trace or self-difference.

Keywords: Gender, Deconstruction, Sexual difference, Streetcar