Taking its cue from Eugene O'Neill's questioning of «faithful realism» voiced by Edmund Tyrone
in Long Day's Journey into Night this book examines the distant legacy of the Irish American
playwright in contemporary multiethnic drama in the U.S. It explores the labyrinth of formal
devices through which African American Latina o First Nations and Asian American dramatists
have unconsciously reinterpreted O'Neill's questioning of mimesis. In their works
hybridizations of stage realism function as aesthetic celebrations of the spiritual
potentialities of cultural in-betweenness. This volume provides detailed analyses of over forty
plays authored by such key artists as August Wilson Suzan-Lori Parks José Rivera Cherríe
Moraga Hanay Geiogamah Diane Glancy David Henry Hwang and Chay Yew to give only a few
prominent examples. All in all Labyrinth of Hybridities invites its readers to reassess the
cross-cultural patterns characterizing the history of twentieth century American drama.
