The Emperor Jones
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| - | :''[[American modernism]]'' | ||
| - | [[Modernist literature]] in [[America]] dealt with such topics as racial relationships, gender roles and sexuality, to name just a few. It reached its peak in America in the 1920s up to the 1940s. Among the representative writers of the period we may find [[Ezra Pound]], [[Scott Fitzgerald]], [[Ernest Hemingway]] and [[William Faulkner]], although one should mention also [[Walt Whitman]], who, even if he belongs to the 19th century poets, is sometimes regarded as a pioneer of the modernist era in America. | ||
| - | ==Black writers== | ||
| - | [[African American literature|Black writer]]s need to be mentioned when talking about modernism in America, as they seem to have brought a breakthrough in literature and mentality, as far as the self-esteem of Afro-Americans is concerned. The folk-oriented poetry of [[Sterling Brown]] and [[Langston Hughes]], for example, written in a rhythm fit to be either sung or told as a story, melancholically describes the joyful attitude of Afro-Americans towards life, in spite of all the hardships they were confronted with. The protagonists of these poems are shown in such a light which offers insight into their cultural identity and folklore. An insight into culture and folklore is also a topic that prose deals with, such as, for example, [[Jean Toomer]]'s ''[[Blood-Burning Moon]]'' and William Faulkner's ''[[That Evening Sun]]''. | ||
| - | Racial relations between blacks and whites, the gap between what was expected of each of the two and what the actual facts were, or, better said, prejudice in the society of the time are themes dealt with in most of the modernist American literature, whether we speak about prose ([[Jean Toomer]], [[Zora Neal Hurston]], [[William Faulkner]], [[Ernest Hemingway]]), or about drama [[Eugene O'Neil]]. In other words, such stereotypes as the lack of education, the poor use of the English language and their portrayal in a dangerous light are not dealt away with, on the contrary, they are still present during the modernist period, as far as literature is concerned. However, with Ernest Hemingway's ''[[The Battler]]'', for example, there seems to be a reversal of stereotypes. The Afro-American character in this short story proves out to be a kind, calculated and polite man, whose good manners and carefully chosen vocabulary are easily noticeable from the first moment he appears in the story. | + | '''''The Emperor Jones''''' is a 1920 play by American [[dramatist]], [[Eugene O'Neill]] which tells the tale of Brutus Jones, an [[African-American]] man who kills a man, goes to prison, escapes to a [[Caribbean]] island, and sets himself up as emperor. The play recounts his story in flashbacks as Brutus makes his way through the forest in an attempt to escape former subjects who have rebelled against him. |
| - | ==Madness and its manifestations == | + | |
| - | Madness and its manifestations in the human being seems to be another favorite theme of American modernist writers. Eugene O'Neil's ''[[Emperor Jones]]'', Ernest Hemingway's ''The Battler'' and William Faulkner's ''That Evening Sun'', all deal to a certain extent with this topic. | + | |
| - | ==Women's role in society== | + | |
| - | The modernist period also brought changes to the portrayal of gender roles and especially to women's role in society. It is an era under the sign of emancipation and change in society, issues which reflect themselves in the literature of the period, as well. Scott Fitzgerald's ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'', for example, deals with such topics as gender interaction in a mundane society. | + | |
| - | ==The war experience== | + | |
| - | Influenced by the first World War, American modernist writers, such as Ernest Hemingway, offer an insight into the psychological wounds and spiritual scars of the war experience. The economic crisis in America at the beginning of the 1930s also left a mark on the literary creations of the period, such as John Steinbeck's ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]''. Nevertheless, all these negative aspects led to new hopes and aspirations, and to the search for a new beginning, not only for the contemporary individuals, but also for the fictional characters in American modernist literature. | + | |
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| - | ==The New Criticism in America== | + | |
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| - | From the 1930s to the 1960s, [[New Criticism]] became a critical force in the United States. It was the most powerful perspective in American literary criticism. The representatives were [[John Crowe Ransom]], [[Allen Tate]], [[Cleanth Brooks]], [[Robert Penn Warren]]. "The influential critical methods these poet-professors developed emphasized the sharpening of close reading skills. New Criticism privileged the evaluation of poetry as the justification of literary scholarship". ''Brooks and Warren’s Understanding Poetry'' (1938) became one of the most influential college poetry textbooks of the 1930s and continued to be revised and reprinted well into the 1970s" (Morrisson: 29). | + | |
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| - | New Criticism showed itself in such works as [[T.S. Eliot|Eliot]]’s and [[Yeats]]’ poems. "Poetry that best fit the aesthetic criteria of the New Critics was emphasized in important classroom teaching anthologies" (Morrisson: 29). | + | |
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| - | T. S. Eliot redefined tradition in his essay "[[Tradition and the Individual Talent]]". He formulated such critical concepts as "objective correlative", and rethought the literary canon in his elevation of Jacobean drama and metaphysical poetry. His work had a fundamental influence on New Criticism in America. | + | |
| + | The play displays an uneasy mix of [[expressionism]] and [[Realism (dramatic arts)|realism]], which is also characteristic of several other O'Neill plays, including ''[[The Hairy Ape]]''. It was O'Neill's first play to receive great critical acclaim and box office success, and the one that launched his career. | ||
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Revision as of 08:55, 29 May 2010
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The Emperor Jones is a 1920 play by American dramatist, Eugene O'Neill which tells the tale of Brutus Jones, an African-American man who kills a man, goes to prison, escapes to a Caribbean island, and sets himself up as emperor. The play recounts his story in flashbacks as Brutus makes his way through the forest in an attempt to escape former subjects who have rebelled against him.
The play displays an uneasy mix of expressionism and realism, which is also characteristic of several other O'Neill plays, including The Hairy Ape. It was O'Neill's first play to receive great critical acclaim and box office success, and the one that launched his career.
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