AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume 5, Number4. October 2021 Pp.180-189
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol5no4.14
The Poetics of Female Resistance in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night
Olfa Gandouz Ayeb
English Department
The College of Humanities and Sciences Al Kharej
The University of Sattam Ibnu Abdelaziz
Saudi Arabia
Email: o.gandouz@psau.edu.sa
Received: 9/17/2021 Accepted:10/13/2021 Published:10/30/2021
Abstract:
The present paper is an attempt to study the female quest for freedom in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night from a French feminist perspective. Indeed, Mary Tyrone resorts to body language as a form of resistance against gender and cultural confinement. French feminism will be deployed to understand female non-verbal subversive strategies. Luce Irigaray argues that language is male-dominated and male discourse misrepresents women. Accordingly, body language can be interpreted as a silent form of female resistance against patriarchal hegemony. It is the case of Mary who is irritated because of the male gaze and she uses madness as a silent language of resistance against female and ethnic stereotypes. Mary is a rebellious woman who defies her three men for being indifferent about her dilemma of disillusionment with the institution of marriage. She is treated as a wife, a mother or a daughter and she is often assigned the role of ‘the Angel in the House.’ French feminism will be used to understand the way O’Neill reshapes female identity and he calls for not linking female identity to the social roles. The aim is to study the non-verbal communication, the behavioural, kinetic, gestural and psychological profile of Mary. The paper will also focus on the hardships Mary faces and the ways she reconstructs female identity. The paper draws on the French feminist arguments about female madness as a form of resistance and it criticizes the conventional claim about madness as s form of weakness.
Key Words: French feminism, identity, gaze, non-verbal dialogue, symbolic order
Cite as: Olfa Gandouz, O. A. (2021). The Poetics of Female Resistance in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night. Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 5 (4) 162-171.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol5no4.14
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