en WOMEN AS HOPE OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY IN AUGUST WILSON’S PLAYS
  • Beşe,  Ahmet
    Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey
Abstract

August Wilson’s plays present stories to typify black experience decade by decade in the twentieth century U.S. It is Wilson’s aim to bring the spirit of African American experience of life on stage over the decades of the twentieth century. In Wilson's plays there are spiritual issues to maintain ties for the characters with their cultural past; they struggle to establish the ties in present to see future clearly. Thus, one of the prominent messages that comes out of his work, especially for his African-American audience, is that they are destined to live in identity crisis if they deny their African-American as well as their African roots. Wilson draws upon the dynamics of spiritual values in order to convey the ancestral memory of African-Americans and explore historical dimensions of his work. In each play the characters put an immense offstage force that reminds the audiences of the distinctive African-American spirituality, history, culture and traditions. Wilson’s black art both functions as a distinctive art form in the field of drama and a guide for African-American community as well as American public. For his guidance, however, he chooses guiding/revealing women characters[1] as hope of the future of African-American community in the U.S., which will be the focus of this study.


[1] There are several critical articles that investigate the situation of Wilson’s women characters and gender role in his plays, with a particular emphasis on Rose in Fences. For those who are interested in such examination, Alan Nadel secures three articles on the subject by respected critics such as Sandra G Shannon (“The Ground on Which I Stand: August Wilson’s Perspective on African-American Women”); Harry J. Elam, Jr. (“August Wilson’s Women”) and Missy Dehn Kubitschek (“August Wilson’s Gender Lesson”) in his book, May All Your Fences Have Gates (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1994). See also Tara T. Green, (“Speaking of Voice and August Wilson’s Women” in August Wilson and Black Aesthetics).