Recitation, Reworking and Reference: Literary Allusions in the Plays of Eugene O’Neill

• Název práce v češtině: Přednes, inspirace a narážky: Aluze v divadelních hrách Eugena O’Neilla
• Název v anglickém jazyce: Recitation, Reworking and Reference: Literary Allusions in the Plays of Eugene O’Neill
• Klíčová slova: moderní americké drama|Eugene O’Neill|Cesta dlouhým dnem do noci|Měsíc pro smolaře|Touha pod jilmy|Smutek sluší Elektře|intertextualita
• Klíčová slova anglicky: Modern American drama|Eugene O’Neill|Long Day’s Journey into Night|A Moon for the Misbegotten|Desire Under the Elms|A Mourning Becomes Electra|literary allusion|intertextuality
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2018/2019
• Typ práce: bakalářská práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Ústav anglofonních literatur a kultur (21-UALK)
• Vedoucí / školitel: doc. Clare Wallace, M.A., Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno a potvrzeno stud. odd.
• Datum přihlášení: 21.11.2018
• Datum zadání: 26.11.2018
• Schválení administrátorem: zatím neschvalováno
• Datum potvrzení stud. oddělením: 29.11.2018
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 05.09.2019 08:30
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 21.07.2019
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 05.09.2019
• Odevzdaná/finalizovaná: odevzdaná studentem a finalizovaná
• Oponenti: PhDr. Hana Ulmanová, Ph.D.

Zásady pro vypracování

Eugene O’Neill is one of the greatest American playwrights of the 20^th century and his plays have an irreplaceable position in the canon of modern western drama. This is not accidental as O’Neill’s work offers not only dramatic suspense and grand storytelling, but his plays also present an intricate system of intertextuality and literary allusions. The aim of this BA thesis is to closely analyse the ways in which Eugene O’Neill embeds other texts from the literary canon in his work and how these references to other texts influence his plays. Mainly focusing on Long Day’s Journey into Night, its sequel A Moon for the Misbegotten, Desire Under the Elms and the trilogy Mourning Becomes Electra, the thesis will explore O’Neill’s work with intertextuality.
Focusing on Long Day’s Journey into Night and its sequel A Moon for the Misbegotten the thesis will trace O’Neill’s use of citation as a means of building characters and themes. O’Neill borrows quotes from canonical literary works to enhance his characters’ expression. He utilizes intertextuality and literary allusions in order to create a very specific communication channel through which the characters express their minds. Especially in Long Day’s Journey into Night the number of literary allusions is remarkable and raises the question of whether the quotations are a way of expressing the characters’ identities or whether it is a vehicle that O’Neill uses to give the play a more universal and all-embracing feature
The thesis will also contrast these direct quotations with another notion of literary allusion present in O’Neill’s work – his interpretation and repurposing of traditional dramatic themes dating back to ancient Greece. In Mourning Becomes Electra O’Neill revises the theme of Aeschylus’ Oresteia – revenge. In Desire Under the Elms Eugene O’Neill presents another classical Greek tragedy – Hippolytus by Euripides. These two plays present examples of the broad scope of O’Neill’s attempts to create plays which themes would be regarded as universal and omnipresent.
To conclude, the thesis will provide an analysis of different approaches to intertextuality in the work of Eugene O’Neill in sample of the selected plays. It will examine the variety in literary allusions – from direct quotation to the simple inspiration by a traditional theme of a Greek tragedy. It will show how these references create a space for O’Neill to depict his stories in the scheme of the literary canon and the way in which this strategy contributes to the universality of his dramatic work.

Seznam odborné literatury

Primary sources:
O’Neill Eugene, Desire Under the Elms. London: Nick Hern Books, 1995.
O’Neill, Eugene. Long Day’s Journey into Night. London: Nick Hern Books, 2013.
O’Neill Eugene, A Moon for the Misbegotten. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
O’Neill, Eugene, Mourning Becomes Electra. London: Nick Hern Books, 1992.

Secondary sources:
Alexander, Doris. Eugene O’Neill’s Last Plays: Separating Art form Autobiography. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2005.
Allen, Graham. Intertextuality. London: Routledge, 2006.
Bigsby, C.W.E. A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-century American Drama (Volume One 1900-1940). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Bloom, Harold. Eugene O’Neill. New York: Bloom’s Literary Criticism, 2007.
Bloom, Harold. Eugene O'Neill's Long day's journey into night. New York: Bloom's Literary Criticism, 2009.
Bogard, Travis. “Contour in Time.” New York: Oxford University Press, 1972. Available online:
Cargill, Oscar, N. Bryllion Fagin and William J. Fisher. O'Neill and His Plays: Four Decades of Criticism. New York: New York University Press, 1966.
Clark H. Barrett. Eugene O’Neill, The Man and His Plays. New York: Dover Publications, 1947.
Dymkowski, Christine. “Introduction to the Play.” Preface. Long Day’s Journey into Night. Eugene O’Neill. London: Nick Hern Books, 2013.
Debusscher, Gilbert., Henry I. Schvey and Marc Maufort. New Essays on American Drama. Atlanta: Rodopi, 1989.
Eisenhauer, Drew and Brenda Murphy. Intertextuality in American drama: Critical Essays on Eugene O'Neill, Susan Glaspell, Thornton Wilder, Arthur Miller and other playwrights. Jefferson: McFarland & Co, 2013.
Gassner John. Eugene O'Neill. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1965.
Gelb, Arthur and Barbara. O’Neill. New York: Dell Publishing, 1965.
Gennete, Gérard. Palimpsests: literature in the second degree. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation. London: Routledge, 2006.
Lukeš, Milan. Eugene O’Neill. Praha: Univerzita Karlova, 1979.
Manheim, Michael. The Cambridge Companion to Eugene O'Neill. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Shaugnessy, I. Edward. Down the Nights and Down the Days: Eugene O’Neill’s Catholic Sensibility. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2000.
Sheaffer, Louis. O’Neill: Son and Artist. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2000.
Törnqvist, Egil. Eugene O’Neill, A Playwright’s Theatre. Jefferson: McFarland & Co,
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Voglino, Barbara. “Perverse Mind”: Eugene O’Neill’s Struggle with Closure. London: Associated University Presses, 1999.
Worton, Michael and Judith Still. Intertextuality: Theories and Practices. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 1990.