Eugene O'Neill's One-Act Plays New Critical Perspectives

by Bennett, Michael Y.; Carson, Benjamin D.

• ISBN13: 9781137471772
• ISBN10: 1137471778
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2014-12-04
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Eugene O'Neill, Nobel Laureate in Literature and Pulitzer Prize winner, is widely known for his full length plays. However, his one-act plays are the foundation of his work - both thematically and stylistically, they telescope his later plays. This collection aims to fill the gap by examining these texts, during what can be considered O'Neill's formative writing years, and the foundational period of American drama. A wide-ranging investigation into O'Neill's one-acts, the contributors shed light on a less-explored part of his career and assist scholars in understanding O'Neill's entire oeuvre.

Author Biography

Michael Y. Bennett is Associate Professor of English and affiliated faculty in Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, USA. He is the author of: Reassessing the Theatre of the Absurd (2011/2013); Words, Space, and the Audience (2012); and Narrating the Past through Theatre (2012). He is the editor of Refiguring Oscar Wilde's Salome (2011). He is also Editor of The Edward Albee Review.

Benjamin D. Carson is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of English at Bridgewater State University, USA. He has published articles on Edith Wharton, Gerald Vizenor, Ana Castillo, and Clarence Major and is the editor Sovereignty, Separatism, and Survivance: Ideological Encounters in the Literature of Native North America.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Benjamin D. Carson
1. The Playwright's Theatre: O'Neill's Use of the Provincetown Players as a One-Act Laboratory; Jeff Kennedy
2. Rethinking O'Neill's Beginnings: Slumming, Sociology, and Sensationalism in The Web; J. Chris Westgate
3. Eugene O'Neill's Abortion and Standard Family Roles: The Economics of Terminating a Romance and a Pregnancy; Lesley Broder
4. The Movie Man: The Failure of Aesthetics?: Thierry Dubost
5. "God Stiffen Us": Queering O'Neill's Sea Plays; Phillip Barnhart
6. Epistemological Crises in O'Neill's SS Glencairn Plays; Michael Y. Bennett
7. "The Curtain Is Lowered": Self-Revelation and the Problem of Form in Exorcism; Kurt Eisen
8. "Ain't Nothin' Dere but de Trees!": Ghosts and the Forest in The Emperor Jones; Paul D. Streufert
9. Neither Fallen Angel nor Risen Ape: Desentimentalizing Robert Smith; Thomas F. Connolly
10. Waiting for O'Neill: The Makings of an Existentialist; Steven F. Bloom
11. O'Neill's Hughie: The Sea Plays Revisited; Robert Combs
12. Condensed Comedy: The Neo-Futurists Perform O'Neill's Stage Directions; Zander Brietzke