Abstract
The present paper examines Eugene O’Neill’s three selected plays, Anna Christie , The Iceman Cometh and The Hairy Ape , in the light of cultural studies by focusing on finding the notion of the "other", here women, blacks and the working class. The chosen groups here are among the ones that have been "otherized" by the white, male, bourgeois society. In this study, through the elements of cultural studies, it is shown that the mentioned groups are treated as Others because of their gender, class or race which are considered as inferior ones by the Power. We are going to find out that thinking in terms of binary oppositions is not an acceptable point of view in cultural studies. Therefore, the boundary between the superiority of the Power and inferiority of the Other is broken in this approach. O’Neill’s view point in the selected plays is in line with the core ideas in cultural studies. His wide point of view toward the events of his country and his pluralistic and skeptical outlook does not let any simple categorization or generalization takes place in his works. He criticizes the dominant discourses of the society and makes room for other voices to be heard.
Highlights
Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953) is the father of serious American drama
In the works of many writers including Eugene O'Neill, there is a negation of the promises of the "American Dream." Harold Bloom (2007) in the preface to The Iceman Cometh says "O'Neill is not a celebrator of the possibilities of American life." In the selected plays here a different world, which is in sharp contrast with the promises of the “American Dream," is shown; a society of people who struggle with hopelessness and failure
Each of the selected plays elaborates on one of these issues; The Iceman Cometh will be read through Post-colonialism to focus on the issue of race, The Hairy Ape will be read through Marxism and Anna Christie will be discussed through Feminism and Gender studies
Summary
Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953) is the father of serious American drama. Before him what was known as drama was mostly farce or melodrama. He brought depth to American drama by discussing serious social, cultural, political and economic issues of his society in his plays In many of his plays especially the three selected ones for this article, The Iceman Cometh, Anna Christie and The Hairy Ape, the multicultural society of the United States and the socio-political events of the day are seen. Eugene O’Neill’s America, Desire under Democracy (2007) is an interesting and useful book which shows the engagement of O’Neill’s plays, especially The Iceman Cometh, to the American history, politics, society, and so on. It is a very useful source for proving that cultural studies can be beautifully applied to O’Neill’s plays. These are among some of the elements we have in Postmodernism and in American culture and ideology in which the illusion is more real than reality
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