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Apollo, Dionysus, and three sets of brothers: Nietzsche's "The Birth of Tragedy" as applied to O'Neill, Pinter, and Shepard

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Date Issued:
1991
Summary:
The mythological elements of the Apollonian and Dionysian in ancient tragedy as defined in Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy may be applied to the modern family, specifically Jamie and Edmund in O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, Lenny and Teddy in Pinter's The Homecoming, and Lee and Austin in Shepard's True West. The conflict between the modern brothers is representative of the struggle between and eventual "mimetic reciprocity" of Dionysus and Apollo; each brother of each set is perceived initially to be the polar opposite of his sibling, but as the action evolves his antithetical position dissolves and each becomes a mirror reflection of his brother. But these companion forces have the potential for destruction, and violence erupts when the Apollonian brothers struggle to maintain their individual identities against the stronger force of their Dionysian counterparts.
Title: Apollo, Dionysus, and three sets of brothers: Nietzsche's "The Birth of Tragedy" as applied to O'Neill, Pinter, and Shepard.
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Name(s): Suhajcik, Sarah Sandefur.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Pearce, Howard D., Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 1991
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 97 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: The mythological elements of the Apollonian and Dionysian in ancient tragedy as defined in Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy may be applied to the modern family, specifically Jamie and Edmund in O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, Lenny and Teddy in Pinter's The Homecoming, and Lee and Austin in Shepard's True West. The conflict between the modern brothers is representative of the struggle between and eventual "mimetic reciprocity" of Dionysus and Apollo; each brother of each set is perceived initially to be the polar opposite of his sibling, but as the action evolves his antithetical position dissolves and each becomes a mirror reflection of his brother. But these companion forces have the potential for destruction, and violence erupts when the Apollonian brothers struggle to maintain their individual identities against the stronger force of their Dionysian counterparts.
Identifier: 14747 (digitool), FADT14747 (IID), fau:11538 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1991.
Subject(s): O'Neill, Eugene,--1888-1953--Long day's journey into night
Pinter, Harold,--1930---Homecoming
Shepard, Sam,--1943---True West
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm,--1844-1900--Geburt der Tragödie
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14747
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.