Tony Kushner Use of Angels in Building a Community

Postgraduate English: A Journal and Forum for Postgraduates in English (UK)

Emil Rybczak

关键词: Gender Studies;    Queer Theory;    Jewish Studies;    Walter Benjamin;   

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: University of Durham

【 摘 要 】

Tony Kushner's 'Angels in America' deconstructs traditional communities as insufficiently supportive to the postmodern subject. He builds a new queer family based on self-respect, mutual care and environmental concern. This article will discuss how various forms of the angelic are advanced dialectically to facilitate the protagonist's and play's development. The author uses a Benjaminian reinvention of Judeo-Christian angels to introduce his theme, whilst proposing a psychoanalytical reading of the same characters. In order to negotiate the challenges these angels represent, the protagonist is helped towards the new community by two human angels, one a female visionary and one a mother figure.

【 授权许可】

CC BY