The Theatre of August Wilson by Alan Nadel

The Theatre of August Wilson by Alan Nadel

The first comprehensive study of August Wilson’s drama introduces the major themes and motifs that unite Wilson’s ten-play cycle about African American life in each decade of the twentieth century. Framed by Wilson’s life experiences and informed by his extensive interviews, this book provides fresh, coherent, detailed readings of each play, well-situated in the extant scholarship. It also provides an overview of the cycle as a whole, demonstrating how it comprises a compelling interrogation of American culture and historiography. Keenly aware of the musical paradigms informing Wilson’s dramatic technique, Nadel shows how jazz and, particularly, the blues provide the structural mechanisms that allow Wilson to examine alternative notions of time, property, and law. Wilson’s improvisational logics become crucial to expressing his notions of black identity and resituating the relationship of literal to figurative in the African American community. The final two chapters include contributions by scholars Harry J. Elam, Jr. and Donald E. Pease

The Theatre of August Wilson is an illuminating examination of Wilson’s ten-play African American history cycle as US historyFor the benefit of those who need it, Nadel (Univ. of Kentucky) provides a refresher on Plessy v. Ferguson and the theological disputes of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X alongside explanations of how Wilson's plays reflect and interrogate these and other historical milestones … Summing Up: Recommended. * CHOICE *

Alan Nadel is William T. Bryan Chair of America Literature and Culture at the University of Kentucky. In addition to several books on postwar American literature and media, including Invisible Criticism: Ralph Ellison and the American Canon (1988) and Television in Black-and-White America: Race and National Identity (2006), he is the editor/contributor for two volumes of essays on the drama of August Wilson: May All Your Fences Have Gates: Essays on the Drama of August Wilson (1994) and August Wilson: Completing the Twentieth-Century Cycle (2010). His poetry has appeared in numerous journals, including Georgia Review, Partisan Review, Paris Review, and Shenandoah.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781472534439
ISBN 10	1472534433
Title	The Theatre of August Wilson
Author	Alan Nadel
Series	Critical Companions
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Year published	2019-11-14
Number of pages	232
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable