Approaches to teaching the plays of August Wilson /
The award-winning playwright August Wilson used drama as a medium to write a history of twentieth-century America through the perspectives of its black citizenry. In the plays of his Pittsburgh Cycle, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences and The Piano Lesson, Wilson mixes African spirituality...
| Other Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
Modern Language Association of America,
[2016]
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| Series: | Approaches to teaching world literature ;
140. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | The award-winning playwright August Wilson used drama as a medium to write a history of twentieth-century America through the perspectives of its black citizenry. In the plays of his Pittsburgh Cycle, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences and The Piano Lesson, Wilson mixes African spirituality with the realism of the American theater and puts African American storytelling and performance practices in dialogue with canonical writers like Aristotle and Shakespeare. Wilson's plays, as they portray black Americans living through migration, industrialization and war, explore the relation between a unified black consciousness and America's collective identity. In part 1 of this volume, "Materials," the editors survey sources on Wilson's biography, teachable texts of his plays, useful secondary readings and compelling audiovisual and Web resources. The essays in part 2, "Approaches," look at a diverse set of issues in Wilson's work, including the importance of blues and jazz, intertextual connections to other playwrights, race in performance, Yoruban spirituality and the role of women in the plays. |
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| Physical Description: | vi, 214 pages ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages [197]-209) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781603292580 1603292586 9781603292597 1603292594 |