The Representation of the Other in the American Drama

Abstract

The current research aims to represent the notions of “the Otherness” in O’Neill’s play – The Emperor Jones (1921), and in Baraka’s plays – The Dutchman and The Slave (1964). Also, to describe the transformation of the American Negro from the “oppressed slave” to the “rebellious ruler” in both Baraka’s plays. The Emperor Jones’s study give an inverse or an outlook about the black Americans. It uses psychoanalysis, which narrows the scope of the dramatic study with some concepts of Sigmund Freud. In this sense, this dissertation deals with the different backgrounds of influence which led to the association of the two playwrights visions. This study titles that O’Neill and Baraka tried to dig up the truth of the self and to identify some basic conceptions of the identity. Based on the interpersonal hypothesis of consciousness between O’Neill and Baraka, their works not only expose similarities but also differences once we come to the journey and the result of self-discovery through their dramas.