Some Questions about Teaching Eugene O’Neill’s “The Emperor Jones”

This is a post I wrote back in 2017. I wanted to share it today because someone asked recently about Aaron Douglas’ work, and I wanted to highlight his woodcuts for Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones.

Recently, I taught Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones (1920) in my American literature survey course (1865-present). As I prepared to discuss the play with students, I struggled with what angle to take when exploring a text that contains stereotypical images of African Americans as well as images and sections that counter stereotypical assumptions about African Americans. Eventually, I settled on presenting both aspects to students and letting them think about how we should read The Emperor Jones: as a racist play or as a play that counters racist and imperialistic perspectives. We did not come to a clear answer to this question, and I do not think that is ultimately a bad thing; however, we did think about what exactly O’Neill wants us to take away from the story of Brutus Jones. Today, I want to talk about how I approached this play in the classroom to spark these types of conversations with students.

Before delving into the myriad reactions to The Emperor Jones, we must remember the importance of the play on two fronts. First and foremost, it was the first play on Broadway with lead character played by an…