Eugene O'Neill's Traumatic Memory And Tragedy Writing

As a perfect epitome of America's 20th century drama and a monumental figure in American drama history, Eugene O'Neill has exerted much influence upon many dramatists in America and beyond. He is an unwavering explorer of the meaning of life; his tragedies are reflections upon the destiny of human beings and the essence of life, transcending time and space, and offering enlightenments and insights to people of every era ever since.Active for a century, the studies of O'Neill have different features in the west and in China. With the advent of the centennial anniversary of O'Neill, the late 1980s marks a new surge of O'Neill studies, when the international O'Neill Association launched a series of unprecedented activities, west and east, in remembrance of the dramatist.A holistic view of the domestic studies of O'Neill over the past two decades, however, would produce such findings as that the studies bristle with repetitions and are in want of breakthroughs or originalities, and that they focus more on an isolated work rather than on the whole. Safely after extensive readings and reasoning, this dissertation presents a study of O'Neill's tragedy writing from the perspective of traumatic memory. The relationship between his traumatic memory and tragedy writing as the point of departure, it offers an analysis of the origin of O'Neill's traumatic memory, the impact upon his tragedies, the subterranean connection between his traumatic memory and major works, and the relationship between his traumatic memory and tragic images as well as their tragic aesthetic features.The dissertation consists of seven parts: the opening part is an introduction to O'Neill's life, literary production and artistic achievements, the present situation of O'Neill studies at home and abroad, the dissertation's perspective, originalities, significance, and the outline. Chapter One expounds upon the definition to trauma, its features and impacts, and the relationship between his drama writing and his extraordinary life and experiences, manifest or otherwise, proceeding from the perspective of traumatic memory. Chapter Two explores the influence of O'Neill's traumatic memory on his psychological evolution and writing process. The schematic analysis of the themes and styles of his dramas at different stages, presenting the relationship between traumatic memory and O'Neill's artistic creation, his mentalities, thoughts, and emotional developments, paving the way for an in-depth analysis of his works. O'Neill's writing is interwoven with his traumatic memory which shows stage-specific characteristics: a violent clash between his inner world and his family at the initial stage, a longing for reconciliation in violent inner struggle at the second stage, and inner peace after reconciliation at the last stage. Chapter Three, an interpretation to some typical texts of O'Neill's traumatic memory, covers his works obviously influenced by his traumatic memory and works less so. An analysis and exploration of both types attempt to reveal the extent to which traumatic memory has influenced O'Neill, the definiteness of such influence and its presence or dormancy in his mentality, thus establishing the fact that traumatic memory remains one of the most fundamental drives for his writings. Based on several groups of traumatic memory-related images by O'Neill, Chapter Four discusses their engendering, and the significances and artistic functions conveyed by such images, to explore his character molding though images, the purpose of his portraying characters'psychology, and his unique mentality and state of mind as embodied by such images. Chapter Five, thoughts by, and artistic features of, O'Neill's tragedies, generalizes and integrates the influence of western tragic traditions and various thoughts upon him. It elaborates upon O'Neill's three major artistic features: the unique tragic themes, the tragic character reflecting the value of life, and the diversified approaches for capturing psychology, so as to show how traumatic memory influences the writer's aesthetic and artistic presentation.The concluding part touches upon the rationale of this dissertation. It is an attempt to have a more profound and thorough understanding of O'Neill and his works from the perspective of traumatic memory, thus injecting new energy into O'Neill studies and pushing them forward into the deep and the unrevealed.