Politics And Poetics In Eugene O'neill's The Hairy Ape (1921)

Résumé: This piece of research tackles the issues of politics and poetics in Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape (1922). Politically speaking, O’Neill’s work could be classified in protest theatre genre, as he intends to rebel against the established social order. The playwright describes expulsion, migration, and exploitation of immigrants in 1920’s. To fulfill this aim O’Neill, engages the American dialect as a weapon involving Greek culture and disclaiming Capitalism, Darwinism, and Nativism prevailing in that period. In poetics, we have stressed O’Neill’s appropriation of the Dionysian Myth and his modernization of the ancient Aristotelian tragedy to suit the modern context. In order to reach our goal, we have brought into use the artistic vision of politics and the tragic art of Friedrich Nietzsche developed in his book The Birth of Tragedy (1872) which sought to democratize tragedy. The aim of this effort is to make available both the effect of the social disorder, the meaninglessness of the melting pot, and Nietzsche’s quest to revive tragedy upon O’Neill’s way of crafting his play. This is done through following the IMRAD structure of writing memoirs. This research have made available O’Neill’s way of protesting against the established orders to claim democracy, establish his literary identity, appeal for the arrival of the overman in the real world, and be himself an overman.

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