欧尼尔

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O'Neill, Eugene (Gladstone)

美国戏剧家,剧团演员之子。他过着一种漂泊的生活,沈迷於酗酒,甚至企图自杀。染上肺结核病修养後(1912),他开始编写剧本。普罗温斯敦剧团表演了他的独幕海洋剧《东航加地夫》。1916~1920年间这个剧团上演了欧尼尔早期的剧作。他的第一部多幕剧《天边外》於1920年在百老汇上演,为欧尼尔赢得第一个普立兹戏剧奖,欧尼尔的写作能力和献身於写作的力量都是惊人的。他的作品常描写关於苦闷家庭的相互关系及唯心论和唯物论的冲突,他的声誉在国内外不断上升,欧尼尔的戏剧在全世界被翻译的最多,上演也最多。1920年代他写了很多作品,其中包括《琼斯皇帝》(1921)、《毛猿》(1923)、《安娜.克里斯蒂》(1922,获普立兹奖)、《榆树下的欲望》(1925)、《伟大之神布朗》(1926)和《奇妙的插曲》(1928,获普立兹奖)。後期的剧作有《哀悼》(1931)、《啊,荒野!》(1933,唯一喜剧)、《卖冰的人来了》(1946)和自传性的作品《长夜漫漫路迢迢》(1956,获普立兹奖)被认为是他的最佳作品。1936年获诺贝尔文学奖。第一位获得该项荣誉的美国剧作家。

1888~1953年

O'Neill, Eugene (Gladstone)

U.S. playwright. Born in New York City, the son of a touring actor, he spent an itinerant youth as a seaman, heavy drinker, and derelict, then began writing plays while recovering from tuberculosis (1912). His one-act Bound East for Cardiff (1916) was produced by the experimental Provincetown Players, which also staged his other early plays (1916-20). Beyond the Horizon was produced on Broadway in 1920, earning him his first Pulitzer Prize. Enormously prolific, he often wrote about tortured family relationships and the conflict between idealism and materialism. Soon recognized as a major dramatist, he became widely translated and produced. His many plays of the 1920s include The Emperor Jones (1921), The Hairy Ape (1923), Anna Christie (1922, Pulitzer Prize), Desire Under the Elms (1925), The Great God Brown (1926), and Strange Interlude (1928, Pulitzer Prize). Among his later plays are Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), Ah! Wilderness (1933; his only comedy), The Iceman Cometh (1946), and the autobiographical Long Day's Journey into Night (produced 1956; Pulitzer Prize), considered his masterpiece. O'Neill was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1936, the first U.S. playwright so honored.