Semiotics of the Drama and the Style of Eugene O'neill.

This study results from a desire to integrate and organize the interaction of the multiple media in the dramatic form in a consistent and revealing way. Because the semiotic approach takes into account the discrete signifying systems which make up the form, it proves to be both theoretically and practically useful. This study shows a way of putting data about the signifying dimensions of the dramatic genre into controlled inventories in a computerizable format and shows how the data reveal style and invite comparisons with more traditional literary interpretations. The drama of Eugene O'Neill is studied from the semiotic perspective. O'Neill is the greatest dramatist of the United States, and the texts of his plays are especially rich in directions concerning the non-verbal signifying systems. Most semiotic studies of the drama either deal with one segment or illustrate signifying dimensions from diverse plays. Only a few semiotic studies h and le an entire play. The present study does so, through analysis of a selected corpus: Anna Christie, Desire Under the Elms, Strange Interlude, Mourning Becomes Electra, Long Day's Journey into Night, and A Touch of the Poet. This study theoretically grounds, then illustrates, the collection of the data and their interpretation at all three structural levels: the segment, the whole play, and the selected corpus. In terms of relative differences among semiotic dimensions within segments, from segment to segment within each play, and finally among the six plays, stylistic variance and development may be shown over the dramatist's career. Six semiotic dimensions have been found inherently valuable and adaptable to a controlled format: THEATRICAL SEMIOTIC SYSTEMS, MOTIFS, DRAMATIS PERSONAE CONFIGURATION, PERSONAE AWARENESS LEVEL, COMMUNICATIVE FUNCTIONS, and ARISTOTELIAN DIVISIONS. The concluding discussions of individual plays emphasize the MOTIF dimension because of its particular literary relevance. In h and ling the six signifying dimensions in a controlled format and moving between the structural levels of the corpus in an integrated, rather than a discontinuous or arbitrary way, linguistic methods and forms have been crucial, especially the matrices used by Kenneth L. Pike for multi-dimensional phonological or grammatical systems.Ph.D.American literatureUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/159582/1/8324219.pd