Literatura Inglesa

INTRODUCCION A LA LITERATURA

• The Emperor Jones and “”Circe” from James Joyce’s Ulysses: Refer to the use of expressionistic techniques to externalize the mental condition of the characters.

|INTRO |Expressionism: term borrowed from painting. Form of art which conveys personal mood of the artist. Each work of art transmits|
| |an emotional state.There’s extreme / intense subjectivity since they sought to express meaning or emotional experience |
| |rather than physical reality. Expressionist writers wanted to convey pathos, extreme psychological states, the depths of |
| |human mind and its working, projection of inner self, violent emotions onto the external reality.|
|TECHNIQUES | |The Emperor Jones |Circe in Ulysses |
| |Long monologue |scenes 2-6 |no |
| |Elliptical, telegraphic language, like |Elliptical,telegram-like style in which |yes |
| |staccato. |syntax is compressed, often a staccato, | |
| | |machine-gun style abounding in | |
| ||stichomythic phrases (stichomythia | |
| | |dialogue in single alternating lines), | |
| | |intense feeling. No statements ||
| |Symbolism |forest (mind) tom-tom (drums, heart) | |
| |Distortion of the setting, unrealistic |All action is a projection of Jones’ mind|externalization of the unconscious |
| |atmosphere. |(exceptscene 1 and 8) | |
|THE EMPEROR JONES |Apparitions. Forest, deep imagination. Reflection of his inner self. Ghostly atmosphere. Scene 2: Little formless fears / |
| |scene 3 Negro Jeff / scene 4 Negro prisoners in whose company he has |
||worked and their guard whom he killed / scene 5 slave-market of the mid-nineteenth century about to be auctioned/ scene 6 |
| |slave-ship, working with other slaves / scene 7 a sacrificial altar, a witch-doctor, a crocodile |
| |The play’s style, of course, seemed highly experimental and can still be looked upon as thefirst major American drama in the|
| |expressionist mode. Clearly, when Jones’s visionary encounters are projected beyond the range of his own memory, O’Neill |
| |moves past the limits of the realistic stage. As he does so, the visions become less specific, more emblematic, and the |
| |spectator, at once roused andhypnotized by the drum-beats, is asked to enter into the irrational experience, to feel the |
| |panic, to lose his own sense of orientation. To the degree that he is able to divorce his action and his spectators from |
| |their own spatial and temporal reality, O’Neill turns his play successfully toward expressionism. |
|...