The Cambridge Companion to Eugene O'Neill

by Manheim, Michael; Cambridge University Press

• ISBN13: 9780521556453
• ISBN10: 0521556457
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-09-28
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

This is a volume of specially commissioned essays containing studies of Eugene O’Neill’s life, his intellectual and creative forebears, and his relation to the theatrical world of his creative period, 1916–42. Also included are descriptions of the O’Neill canon and its production history on stage and screen, and a series of essays on ‘special topics’ related to the playwright, such as his treatment of women in the plays, his portrayals of Irish and African Americans, and his attempts to deal in dramatic terms with his parental family culminating in his greatest play, Long Day’s Journey Into Night. One of the essays speaks for those who are critical of O’Neill’s work, and the volume concludes with an essay on O’Neill criticism containing a select bibliography of full-length studies of the playwright’s work.

Table of Contents

List of contributors

List of illustrations

Introduction and chronology

1. Celebrant of loss: Eugene O'Neill 1888-1953 Stephan A. Black

2. O'Neill's philosophical and literary paragons Egil Tornqvist

3. O'Neill and the theatre of his time Daniel J. Watermeier

4. From trial to triumph: the early plays Margaret Loftus Ranald

5. The middle plays James A. Robinson

6. The late plays Normand Berlin

6. Notable American stage productions Ronald Wainscott

7. O'Neill on screen Kurt Eisen

8. O'Neill's America: the strange interlude between the wars Brenda Murphy

9. O'Neill's African and Irish Americans: stereotypes or 'Faithful Realism' Edward L. Shaugnessy

10. O'Neill's female characters Judith E. Barlow

11. 'A Tale of Possessors Self-Disposessed' Donald Gallup

12. Trying to write the family play: autobiography and the dramatic imagination Jean Chothia

14. The stature of Long Day's Journey Into Night Michael Manheim

15. O'Neill and the cult of sincerity Matthew H. Wikander

16. O'Neill criticism Michael Manheim

Index.