Representation of Trauma in The Emperor Jones

Wenqian ZHANG

Abstract


This paper attempts to examine the trauma theme and dig out the underlying causes of the traumatized character in The Emperor Jones in the light of social and historical dimensions. The study investigates the symptoms of trauma manifested by the Afro-American who struggles to resist oppression while denying his identity and parodying his exploiter which ultimately pave way for his own doom as an outcast of both the black and the white community. 


Keywords


Trauma; The Emperor Jones; Eugene O’Neill; African-American

Full Text:

PDF

References


Abraham, N., & Torok, M. (1994). The shell and the kernel: Renewals of psychoanalysis. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Alexander, J. C., Eyerman, R., Giesen, B., Smelser, N. J., & Sztompka, P. (2004). Cultural trauma and collective identity. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.

Balaev, M. (2012). The nature of trauma in American novels. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.

Bhabha, H. K. (1989). Remembering fanon: Self, psyche and the colonial condition. Seattle, WA: Bay Press.

Blackburn, C. (1941). Continental influences on Eugene O’Neill’s expressionistic dramas. American Literature, 13(2), 109-133.

Buelens, G., Durrant, S., & Eaqlestone, R. (Eds.). (2013). The future of trauma theory: Contemporary literary and cultural criticism. New York, NY: Routledge.

Canton, K. F. (2007). The emperor Jones meets Porgy and Bess: William Grant Still, Langston Hughes, and their troubled island. Ars Lyrica: Journal of the Lyrica Society for Word-Music Relations, 16, 45-55.

Corey, J. (1974). O’Neill’s the Emperor Jones (pp.156-157). EBSCO Publishing.

Cotsell, M. (2005). The theater of trauma: American modernist drama and the psychological struggle for the American mind. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.

Erikson, K. T. (2005). Everything in its path. Theme Perks Press.

Fanon, F. (2007). Black skin, white masks. New York, NY: Grove Press.

Ferrán, O. (2008). Working through memory: Writing and remembrance in contemporary Spanish narrative. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press.

Garvey, M., & Garvey, A. J. (1986). The philosophy and opinions of Marcus Garvey, or, Africa for the Africans. The Majority Press.

Grubrich-Simitis, I. (1984). From concretism to metaphor: Thoughts on some theoretical and technical aspects of the psychoanalytic work with children of holocaust survivors. The Psycho-analytic Study of Child, 39, 301-319.

Herman, J. L. (1997). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence--from domestic abuse to political terror. New York, NY: Perseus Books Group.

Kaplan, E. A. (2005). Trauma culture: The politics of terror and loss in media and literature. New Brunswick, Canada: Rutgers University Press.

LaCapra, D. (2000). Writing history, writing trauma. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Lowe, J. (2011). Creating the circum-Caribbean Imaginary: DuBose Heyward’s and Paul Robeson’s revision of the Emperor Jones (pp.211-333). Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press.

McCann, I. L., & Pearlman, L. A. (1990). Psychological trauma and the adult survivor: Theory, therapy, and transformation. London, England: Psychology Press.

Monks, A. (2005). “Genuine Negroes and real bloodhounds”: Cross-Dressing, Eugene O’Neill, the Wooster Group, and “The Emperor Jones.”. Modern Drama, 48(3), 540-564.

Kellerman, P. F. (2007). Sociodrama and collective trauma. London, England: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Smith, S. H. (2009). The Emperor Jones and national trauma. Modern Drama, 52, 57-72.

Steen, S. (2000). Melancholy bodies: Racial subjectivity and whiteness in O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones. Theatre Journal, 52(3), 339-360.

Van der Kolk, B. A., & Van der Hart, O. (1991). The intrusive past: The flexibility of memory and the engraving of trauma. American Imago, 48, 525-454.

Van der Kolk, B. A., & McFarlane, A. C. (1996). Traumatic stress: The effects of overwhelming experience on mind, body, and society. New York, NY: Guilford.

Vickroy, L. (2002). Trauma and survival in contemporary fiction. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press.

Yao, X. J. (2011). O’Neill’s unconscious Shakespearean orientation: The comparative study of The Emperor Jones and Macbeth. Studies in Literature and Language, 2(1), 42-50.

Zhu, X. F. (2012). British and American dramas. Shanghai, China: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/n

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c)



Share us to:   

 

Online Submission: http://cscanada.org/index.php/sll/submission/wizard


Reminder

How to do online submission to another Journal?

If you have already registered in Journal A, then how can you submit another article to Journal B? It takes two steps to make it happen:

1. Register yourself in Journal B as an Author

Find the journal you want to submit to in CATEGORIES, click on “VIEW JOURNAL”, “Online Submissions”, “GO TO LOGIN” and “Edit My Profile”. Check “Author” on the “Edit Profile” page, then “Save”.

2. Submission

Go to “User Home”, and click on “Author” under the name of Journal B. You may start a New Submission by clicking on “CLICK HERE”.


We only use three mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases: caooc@hotmail.com; sll@cscanada.net; sll@cscanada.org

 Articles published in Studies in Literature and Language are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).

 STUDIES IN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE Editorial Office

Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138 
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net; Http://www.cscanada.org 
E-mail: office@cscanada.net; office@cscanada.org; caooc@hotmail.com

Copyright © 2010 Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture