The essays in
Thornton Wilder: New Perspectives constitute a comprehensive critical reassessment at a time of renewed interest in the writer. Wilder is best known for
Our Town and
The Bridge of San Luis Rey, both winners of a Pulitzer Prize, making Wilder still the only writer to be so honored for both drama and fiction. His other fiction, in particular, is far less familiar to a wider readership. The authors of these essays aim to contextualize Wilder’s work historically and to show that Wilder’s handling of questions of religion, American identity, gender, and ethics should vault him into the ranks of major American novelists. Specifically, this anthology
includes groundbreaking work on the application of queer theory to
Our Town; on Wilder’s screenplay for the Alfred Hitchcock film
Shadow of a Doubt; and on Wilder’s adaptations of Ibsen’s
A Doll’s House, Farquhar’s
The Beaux’ Stratagem, and his own
The Long Christmas Dinner. 