Abstract
Providing a detailed portrait of American playwright August Wilson (1945-2005), this collection of new essays explores the development of the author's ethos across his twenty-year creative career. -- Provided by publisher.
"The emancipated century": Remapping History, Reclaiming MEmory in August Wilson's Dramatic Landscapes of the 20th Century / Joyce Hope Scott -- "A Big Bend There, A Tree by the Shore": Situated Identity in The Janitor / Jacqueline Zeff -- Two Trains Running: Bridging Diana Taylor's "Rift" and Narrating Manning Marable's "Living History" / Sarah Saddler and Paul Bryant-Jackson -- World War II History/history: Essential Contexts in Seven Guitars / Ellen Bonds -- The Use of Stereotype and Archetype in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom / Michael Downing -- Gem of the Ocean's Fugitive Movements / Isaiah Matthew Wooden -- Reclaiming the Mother: Women, Documents and the Condition of the Mother in Gem of the Ocean and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom / Jesslyn Collins-Frohlich -- A Century Lacking Progress: The Fractured Community in Gem of the Ocean and King Hedley II / Christopher B. Bell -- "He Gonna Give Me My Ham": The Use of Food as a Symbol for Social Justice / Psyche Williams-Forson -- Resurrecting "Phantom Limb[s] of the Dismembered Slave and God": Unveiling the Africanisms in Gem of the Ocean / Artisia Green -- Epiphany and the "Drama of Souls" / Owen Seda -- Conjuring Africa in August Wilson's Plays / Connie Rapoo -- Re-Evaluating the Legacy of the Ten-Play Cycle / Susan C.W. Abbotson.