
Contents
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Redlegs: O’Neill’s Black-Irish Caribbean Redlegs: O’Neill’s Black-Irish Caribbean
-
Irish Famine Gothic: Long Day’s Journey into Night Irish Famine Gothic: Long Day’s Journey into Night
-
Ulster Plantation Gothic: Desire Under the Elms Ulster Plantation Gothic: Desire Under the Elms
-
The Curious Case of Great-Grandfather Fitzgerald The Curious Case of Great-Grandfather Fitzgerald
-
‘Half Black Irish’: Tan Lines and Sunburns in Fitzgerald ‘Half Black Irish’: Tan Lines and Sunburns in Fitzgerald
-
Coda: Stage Irish: Fitzgerald in Hollywood Coda: Stage Irish: Fitzgerald in Hollywood
-
-
-
-
-
-
3 How the Irish Became Red: O’Neill and Fitzgerald
Get access-
Published:December 2022
Cite
Abstract
Chapter 3 considers near-contemporaries Eugene O’Neill and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The latter over-identified with the one non-Irish branch of his family that exemplified ‘Saxon’ whiteness, an emphasis unquestioned by critics, who have left Fitzgerald’s eighteenth-century Irish-American roots unexamined. This struggle is the origin of his oeuvre’s anxiety regarding class and racial status, as the consideration of the term ‘half black Irish’ (a Fitzgerald self-ascription) suggests. By contrast, O’Neill’s drama critiques the Irish presence in the Americas over centuries as one long failure to create solidarity with their fellow oppressed, especially peoples of colour. As a result, unfinished Irish histories (the Ulster Plantation and the 1845 Famine) return to haunt the American action of O’Neill’s drama. In dermatologic classification (the Fitzpatrick Scale), those of white Irish ancestry have skin tones so light as to be ‘flawed’ due to being too white. Thus, a tendency to burn was a racial liability on fashionable 1920s Riviera beaches in which an even tan conversely signalled ‘whiteness’ (as depicted by Fitzgerald). It had also been a liability in the seventeenth century on Caribbean islands that witnessed indentured white labour and in which the easily sunburned Irish were racialized as ‘red’ (as evoked by O’Neill).
Sign in
Personal account
- Sign in with email/username & password
- Get email alerts
- Save searches
- Purchase content
- Activate your purchase/trial code
- Add your ORCID iD
Purchase
Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.
Purchasing informationMonth: | Total Views: |
---|---|
December 2022 | 2 |
January 2023 | 7 |
February 2023 | 3 |
March 2023 | 2 |
April 2023 | 1 |
May 2023 | 4 |
June 2023 | 2 |
July 2023 | 5 |
August 2023 | 7 |
October 2023 | 3 |
November 2023 | 3 |
January 2024 | 5 |
February 2024 | 4 |
March 2024 | 11 |
April 2024 | 3 |
May 2024 | 4 |
June 2024 | 7 |
July 2024 | 4 |
August 2024 | 1 |
October 2024 | 1 |
November 2024 | 2 |
December 2024 | 1 |
January 2025 | 2 |
February 2025 | 5 |
March 2025 | 6 |
April 2025 | 5 |
Get help with access
Institutional access
Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:
IP based access
Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.
Sign in through your institution
Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.
If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.
Sign in with a library card
Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.
Society Members
Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:
Sign in through society site
Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:
If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.
Sign in using a personal account
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.
Personal account
A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.
Viewing your signed in accounts
Click the account icon in the top right to:
Signed in but can't access content
Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.
Institutional account management
For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.