Award-winning African-American playwright August Wilson created a cultural chronicle of black America through such works as Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Fences, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, and Two Trains Running. The authentic ring of wit, anecdote, homily, and plaint proved that a self-educated Pittsburgh ghetto native can grow into a revered conduit for a century of black achievement. He forced readers and audiences to examine the despair generated by poverty and racism by exploring African-American heritage and experiences over the course of the twentieth century. This literary companion provides the reader with a source of basic data and analysis of characters, dates, events, allusions, staging strategies and themes from the work of one of America's finest playwrights. The text opens with an annotated chronology of Wilson's life and works, followed by his family tree. Each of the 166 encyclopedic entries that make up the body of the work combines insights from a variety of sources along with generous citations; each concludes with a selected bibliography on such relevant subjects as the blues, Malcolm X, irony, roosters, and Gothic mode. Charts elucidate the genealogies of Wilson's characters, the Charles, Hedley, and Maxson families, and account for weaknesses in Wilson's female characters. Two appendices complete the generously cross-referenced work: a timeline of events in Wilson's life and those of his characters, and a list of 40 topics for projects, composition, and oral analysis.
Wilson : The Ghost of the Yellow Dog was actually a short story I wrote many years before . ... our experience here : where the Southern Railroad crossed the Yellow Dog , and Bessie Smith of course has her " Yellow Dog Blues , " and the ...
It is 1936, and Boy Willie arrives in Pittsburgh from the South in a battered truck loaded with watermelons to sell.
Set in 1904, August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean begins on the eve of Aunt Esther's 287th birthday.
... actors such as Charles Dutton and L. Scott Caldwell have effectively interpreted Wilson.19 Paradoxically, ... I became aware of one brief but telling repetition and revision through Tony Haney's powerful performance as Troy.
When the boss Becker's son returns from prison, violence threatens to erupt. What makes this play remarkable is not the plot; Jitney is Wilson at his most real--the words these men use and the stories they tell form a true slice of life.
Mary L. Bogumil. UNDERSTANDING AUGUST WILSON Understanding Contemporary American Literature Matthew J. Bruccoli , Series Editor. This One 07B5-3C8 - LORB 98-40219.
When Ma Rainey's Black Bottom opened in 1984, August Wilson was unknown in theatre. By 1988 he was described as the foremost dramatist of the American black experience and was...
The book includes an author’s note, a timeline of August Wilson’s life, a list of Wilson’s plays, and a bibliography.
Critics and scholars have lauded August Wilson's work for its universality and its ability, especially in Fences, to transcend racial barriers and this play helped to earn him the titles of "America's greatest playwright" and "the African ...
August Wilson's radical and provocative call to arms.