Eugene O’Neill and the Celebration of The Other

Abstract

The present paper examines Eugene O’Neill’s three selected plays, Anna Christie, The Iceman Cometh and The Hairy Ape, in the light of cultural studies by focusing on finding the notion of the "other", here women, blacks and the working class. The chosen groups here are among the ones that have been "otherized" by the white, male, bourgeois society. In this study, through the elements of cultural studies, it is shown that the mentioned groups are treated as Others because of their gender, class or race which are considered as inferior ones by the Power. We are going to find out that thinking in terms of binary oppositions is not an acceptable point of view in cultural studies. Therefore, the boundary between the superiority of the Power and inferiority of the Other is broken in this approach. O’Neill’s view point in the selected plays is in line with the core ideas in cultural studies. His wide point of view toward the events of his country and his pluralistic and skeptical outlook does not let any simple categorization or generalization takes place in his works. He criticizes the dominant discourses of the society and makes room for other voices to be heard.