Overview

The year 1988 was notable for being the centennial of playwright Eugene O'Neill's birth and a time of unprecedented democratization in the People's Republic of China and rapprochement with the West. In this optimal climate, a remarkable festival and conference devoted to O'Neill was held in Nanjing, China, orchestrated mainly by Haiping Liu, who secured the funds and cooperation necessary to lure noted O'Neill scholars and theatre artists from around the world. Liu selected and edited papers for publication after the conference, but he realized that this would be a difficult task conducted from China. At his invitation Lowell Swortzell, a conference participant, became co-editor, and in the dark days following the political upheaval in China in 1989, Swortzell assumed much of the burden of editing, organizing, clearing rights, and generally readying the final volume. The essays included capture the intellectual and artistic stimulation of the conference. Organized in divisions similar to the order in which the papers were delivered, they explore the major areas of O'Neill scholarship by some of the most renowned scholars from the United States, Western and Eastern Europe, Japan, and China. They emphasize O'Neill's international reputation and productions, particularly in Asia. Included is an open forum discussion of the festival productions, as well as photographs. The circumstances of the festival and conference are a story unto themselves, and in their individual introductions, the co-editors relate some of the background and convey some of the flavor of the events--providing insights into the continued appeal of O'Neill in China and the world.

Full Product Details

Author:   Haiping Liu ,  Lowell Swortzell ,  Haiping Liu (Professor and Chair of English, Nanjing University, China)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Imprint:   Praeger Publishers Inc
Volume:   No. 44.
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.695kg
ISBN:  

9780313273797

ISBN 10:   0313273790
Pages:   360
Publication Date:   23 March 1992
Recommended Age:   From 7 to 17 years
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

"Letters of Greetings by Cao Yu, President, The Chinese Dramatists' Association, Beijing, and Frederick C. Wilkins, President, The Eugene O'Neill Society, Boston Keynote Address: Eugene O'Neill: Universal Brotherhood Theatre for Today's World by Virginia Floyd Introductions--From the People's Republic of China, Haiping Liu From the United States, Lowell Swortzell O'Neill's Philosophic and Religious Motifs Eugene O'Neill's TAO TE CHING: The Spiritual Evolution of a Mystic by Virginia Floyd Eugene O'Neill and Puritanism by Marcus Konick ICEMAN and JOURNEY, YIN and YANG: Taoist Rhythm and O'Neill's Late Tragedies by James A. Robinson Eugene O'Neill's MARCI MILLIONS: Desiring Marginality and the Dematerialization of the Orient by James S. Moy O'Neill's Understanding of Chinese Thought in MARCO MILLIONS by Gang Li The Uses of Pessimism: Some Random Thoughts About Eugene O'Neill by Zhiji Ren O'Neill in Comparison Structures of Forgiveness: The Endings of A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN and Ibsen's PEER GYNT by Rolf Fjelde Politics and a Proletarian Tragedy: A Comparative Analysis of the Reception of Eugene O'Neill's THE HAIRY APE in Germany and the U.S. by Ward B. Lewis Eternal Recurrence and the Shaping of O'Neill's Dramatic Structure by Albert E. Kalson and Lisa M. Schwerdt Leo Tolstoy's THE POWER OF DARKNESS and Eugene O'Neill's DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS: A Road to Redemption by Maya Koreneva O'Neill as Playwright Eugene O'Neill--World Playwright: The Beginnings by Paul Voelker Three O'Neill Women: An Emergent Pattern by Jean Anne Waterstradt Author, Actor, Audience: The Metatheatrical Elements in the Late Plays of Eugene O'Neill by Mariko Hori Eugene O'Neill's DYNAMO and the Expressionist Cannon by William R. Elwood The Black World of Eugene O'Neill by Thomas D. Pawley Building Characters: Eugene O'Neill's Composition Process by Judith E. Barlow Register and Idiolect in THE ICEMAN COMETH and LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT by Jean Chothia Mirrors of Consciousness: Narrative Patterns in O'Neill's THE ICEMAN COMETH by Marc Maufort O'Neill on Stage Eugene O'Neill and the Provincetown Players: Watershed in American Theatre by Robert K. Sarlos Dramatic Tension Between Expressionistic Design and Naturalistic Acting in THE EMPEROR JONES by Felicia Hardison Londre THE EMPEROR JONES as a Source of Theatrical Experimentation: 1920s-1980s by Lowell Swortzell THE ICEMAN COMETH Twice: A Comparison of the 1946 and 1956 New York Productions by Daniel J. Watermeier Directing the Plays of Eugene O'Neill--Style, Substance and Synthesis by Betty Jean Jones All God's Chillun Play Games by Marcelline Krafchick O'Neill Abroad Ingmar Bergman and LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT by Egil Tornqvist How Does O'Neill Fare in China? by Wenpei Long Two Popular O'Neill Plays Staged in Japan: AH, WILDERNESS! and DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS by Yasuko Ikeuchi Directing MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA in Japan by Yoshiteru Kurokawa O'Neill in a Chinese Classroom: ""Before Breakfast""--A Good Starting Point by Jianqiu Sun Panel Discussion on the Nanjing O'Neill Theatre Festival O'Neill: An International Perspective--A Bibliographic Note Index"

Reviews

?This book is one of several fine books coming out of the 1988 centenary of Eugene O'Neill's birth. It is a series of essays that were presented as papers at a conference in Nanjing, China, by outstanding O'Neill scholars from throughout the world. Their papers represent the latest scholarship on O'Neill from a wide range of viewpoints. Part 1 reveals the extent to which O'Neill was influenced by Taoism in his writing (his home in California is called Tao House). Part 2 of the book is O'Neill in Comparison, and there are fine papers relating O'Neill's art to that of other playwrights. Essays in Part 3 provide information on O'Neill's characterization of women, the blacks in his plays, and elements of his playwriting technique. Part 4 considers various aspects of O'Neill's plays in production, and Part 5 looks at productions of his plays in Sweden, China, and Japan. This is a rich collection of 30 essays by writers who understand O'Neill and theatrical production. The thorough index indicates the range of subjects in the book, including Absurd drama, Brecht, Kierkegaard, O'Casey, Robards, and Tao Wang (Beyond the Horizon). There were also fascinating photographs of a Chinese production of The Emperor Jones. The book could very well serve students (community college through graduate) as an introduction to O'Neill and his plays.?-Choice This book is one of several fine books coming out of the 1988 centenary of Eugene O'Neill's birth. It is a series of essays that were presented as papers at a conference in Nanjing, China, by outstanding O'Neill scholars from throughout the world. Their papers represent the latest scholarship on O'Neill from a wide range of viewpoints. Part 1 reveals the extent to which O'Neill was influenced by Taoism in his writing (his home in California is called Tao House). Part 2 of the book is O'Neill in Comparison, and there are fine papers relating O'Neill's art to that of other playwrights. Essays in Part 3 provide information on O'Neill's characterization of women, the blacks in his plays, and elements of his playwriting technique. Part 4 considers various aspects of O'Neill's plays in production, and Part 5 looks at productions of his plays in Sweden, China, and Japan. This is a rich collection of 30 essays by writers who understand O'Neill and theatrical production. The thorough index indicates the range of subjects in the book, including Absurd drama, Brecht, Kierkegaard, O'Casey, Robards, and Tao Wang (Beyond the Horizon). There were also fascinating photographs of a Chinese production of The Emperor Jones. The book could very well serve students (community college through graduate) as an introduction to O'Neill and his plays. -Choice

?This book is one of several fine books coming out of the 1988 centenary of Eugene O'Neill's birth. It is a series of essays that were presented as papers at a conference in Nanjing, China, by outstanding O'Neill scholars from throughout the world. Their papers represent the latest scholarship on O'Neill from a wide range of viewpoints. Part 1 reveals the extent to which O'Neill was influenced by Taoism in his writing (his home in California is called Tao House). Part 2 of the book is O'Neill in Comparison, and there are fine papers relating O'Neill's art to that of other playwrights. Essays in Part 3 provide information on O'Neill's characterization of women, the blacks in his plays, and elements of his playwriting technique. Part 4 considers various aspects of O'Neill's plays in production, and Part 5 looks at productions of his plays in Sweden, China, and Japan. This is a rich collection of 30 essays by writers who understand O'Neill and theatrical production. The thorough index indicates the range of subjects in the book, including Absurd drama, Brecht, Kierkegaard, O'Casey, Robards, and Tao Wang (Beyond the Horizon). There were also fascinating photographs of a Chinese production of The Emperor Jones. The book could very well serve students (community college through graduate) as an introduction to O'Neill and his plays.?-Choice

Author Information

HAIPING LIU is Professor and Chair of English at Nanjing University, China. The organizer of the festival and conference Eugene O'Neill--World Playwright held in China in June 1988, he has published books and articles on O'Neill in both English and Chinese, including Eugene O'Neill on Drama (1988). LOWELL SWORTZELL is Professor of Educational Theatre at New York University. His publications on O'Neill and other subjects in drama have appeared in professional journals and collections. A specialist in children's theatre, he is editor of several collections of plays and author of books in that field, including the International Guide to Children's Theatre and Educational Theatre (Greenwood Press, 1989), winner of the Distinguished Book Award of the American Alliance for Theatre in Education and named a Choice Outstanding Academic Book.

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