Date of Award

Spring 1970

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

English

Abstract

Eugene O'Neill made no effort to hide the names of those writers and literary works which were important to him, and most of his biographers cite the fact that from the commencement of his playwrighting [sic] career O'Neill was influenced by the Swedish writer August Strindberg. O 'Neill himself was, in fact, one of the first to call attention to the kinship between his work and that of his "Master." In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, he indicated that he was delighted to have an opportunity to discuss the debt Ameri­can drama owed to the modern drama of Europe, and, in particular, to acknowledge Strindberg's inspiring genius. Growing out of an interest in O'Neill and in his pivotal position in the history or American drama, this study, then, intends to investigate the manner in which the life and work or August Strindberg influenced the life and work of Eugene O'Neill.

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