Eugene O'Neill's Play ‘The Emperor Jones’: A New Historicist Reading
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53286/arts.v7i1.2424Keywords:
Violence, Society & Environment, Culture, Power, Domination, SlaveryAbstract
This study delves into a critical analysis of Eugene O'Neill's tragic play, "The Emperor Jones," employing perspective of the New Historicist Reading as the major methodology of this current study. This study highlights the cultural aspects, the social circumstances and historical events which affected Eugene O'Neill's entire life and career. In fact, Eugene O'Neill wrote the famous "The Emperor Jones'" play with the goal of illuminating the shocking behaviors of cannibalism and primitivism which are most often associated with the early twentieth century conception of primitive black Africa. This study seeks to examine the play's historical context, revealing its temporal setting, significant events and contemporaneous social concerns in which it was produced. ‘The Emperor Jones' play is considered a cultural, social, political commentary on the racism, slavery, injustice, and discrimination which were common in the United States community in 1920. Proudly, Eugene O'Neill is a pioneer of modern American drama in the early 20th century. He was a critic of the whole structure of his contemporary community in 1920. In spite of the playwright's artistry O'Neill in writing his famous tragedy "The Emperor Jones," was influenced by the political, economic and social factors, including particular historical events in the era in which it was written (1920), namely imperialism, colonization, the U.S. occupation of Haiti, the economic boom, spread of capitalism and the civil war of such a period. The main idea of “The Emperor Jones'" play, will lead our attention to the American policy towards the Caribbean islands and the racial discrimination history between the whites and the blacks in American society, and also the internal conflicts among the dissent groups and the dominant authority in America. From this perspective, this study seeks to provide an in-depth interpretation of the play from the standpoint of the New Historicism Reading, with special attention to the events, themes, characters which are both inside and outside of contexts of the tragedy.
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