The Aesthetic Fashioning of the Self: Failure of Dissensual Subjectivity in The Hairy Ape

Abstract

In The Hairy Ape Eugene O’Neill reveals the instrumental control of society and accentuates the decline of an authentic self-relation against the backdrop of capitalist modernity. He creates an alienated and robotized character who breaks free of his designated role as a docile subject. This article draws upon the later work of Michel Foucault, especially his notions of care of the self and aesthetic self-fashioning, in order to consider the consequences of an ethical viewpoint toward subjectivity in O’Neill’s play. Associating Foucault’s concept of care of the self with social action, this article argues that Yank’s desire to act emanates from his ethical commitment to subjectivity and agency, but he fails because biopower contains and eliminates any resistance that calls its authority into question. It is the author’s contention that he carries the weight of revolt alone and thus cannot experience a self-fashioned form of subjectivity without bringing ruin upon himself.