O'Neill's Shakespeare (Theater: Theory/Text/Performance) - Hardcover

Berlin, Normand

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0472104691 ISBN 13: 9780472104697

Publisher: University of Michigan Press, 1993

Synopsis

In O'Neill's Shakespeare , Normand Berlin explores the relationship of William Shakespeare and Eugene O'Neill through detailed, often surprising, intertextual readings of the two great playwrights' work. "Of course, it would have been impossible for O'Neill not to have been influenced by Shakespeare," acknowledges Berlin. But this is an influence of an unusual and extraordinary sort, "a family romance" that transcends their obvious differences—a romance that "takes in all O'Neill's life and art."

In the first book-length study of this crucial literary and dramatic relationship, Berlin probes far beyond the usual listing of allusions and references. This is the exploration of an "essential, basic, even natural" connection, in which Shakespeare is shown to have fundamentally shaped O'Neill's creative imagination. Following O'Neill's career chronologically, Berlin divides his study into two parts. The "first career" (culminating in Mourning Becomes Electra) is explored through recurring themes that evoke Shakespeare: the sea, black and white, and the family. O'Neill's "second career" (from Ah! Wilderness until the last plays) is examined through Shakespearean genre classifications: comedy, history, tragedy, and tragicomedy. Though always grounded in close textual readings, Berlin's analysis spirals outward to encompass O'Neill's artistic and psychological development and touches on the questions of tradition, transcendence, and human nature inevitably raised when such literary connections across history are drawn.

O'Neill's Shakespeare is more than a reminder that Shakespeare continues to haunt Western culture; it is a careful and fascinating analysis of a particular legacy in American drama. The book has insights to offer to specialists in Shakespeare and O'Neill, and to any reader interested in the transmission of ideas through Western culture. Berlin's study of the unconscious and conscious uses of Shakespeare by O'Neill provide a valuable new understanding of O'Neill's artistry. It is also an eloquent, thoughtful account that blends the transcendence of Shakespeare's influence with the particular ways in which every era must refashion Shakespeare so that "the past becomes the present."

About this title

Review

"This well-crafted study explores the myriad ways one master playwright influences the creative artistry of another. Berlin demonstrates that 'Shakespeare's words, his characters, his conventions, his methods of presentation, his tragic vision, his emphasis on family, his compassion for humankind, the course of his development—all become part of O'Neill's lifeblood.'"
—Choice
(Choice 1999-04-01)

"This is a book that belongs on the shelf of any serious reader of either of its eponymous stars—stars that both shine the brighter now, thanks to Professor Berlin's loving linkage of them."
—Eugene O'Neill Review
(Eugene O'Neill Review 1999-04-01)

". . . a work by a seasoned scholar of both Shakespeare and O'Neill; [Berlin] also informs his critical commentary with a strong understanding of the role performance contributes in the realization of a play. . . . Berlin's study is amazingly erudite, the readings of the plays (those of O'Neill, Shakespeare, and Beckett) are insightful and persuasive, and, as he explains in his introduction, his explication of O'Neill's canon demonstrates in countless ways how Shakespeare 'prodded O'Neill's creative imagination, enriching his dramatic art.' . . . thought-provoking in its demonstration of how one writer 'flows' and 'infuses' into another, in this case Shakespeare into O'Neill, and how O'Neill not only used Shakespeare in his own theatrical creations but how he also 'contains' Shakespeare."
—Review
(Review 1999-04-01)

". . . this study, the fruit of a lifetime of scholarship and teaching, is a valuable addition to any library."
—Theatre Survey
(Theatre Survey 1999-04-01)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0472104691
• ISBN 13: 9780472104697
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280