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Critics have long suggested that August Wilson, who called blues "the best literature we have as black Americans," appropriated blues music for his plays. After August insists instead that Wilson's work is direct blues expression. Patrick Maley argues that Wilson was not a dramatist importing blues music into his plays; he was a bluesman, expressing a blues ethos through drama.
Reading Wilson's American Century Cycle alongside the cultural history of blues music, as well as Wilson's less discussed work--his interviews, the polemic speech "The Ground on Which I Stand," and his memoir play How I Learned What I Learned--Maley shows how Wilson's plays deploy the blues technique of call-and-response, attempting to initiate a dialogue with his audience about how to be black in America.
After August further contends that understanding Wilson as a bluesman demands a reinvestigation of his forebears and successors in American drama, many of whom echo his deep investment in social identity crafting. Wilson's dramaturgical pursuit of culturally sustainable black identity sheds light on Tennessee Williams's exploration of oppressive limits on masculine sexuality and Eugene O'Neill's treatment of psychologically corrosive whiteness. Today, the contemporary African American playwrights Katori Hall and Tarell Alvin McCraney repeat and revise Wilson's methods, exploring the fraught and fertile terrain of racial, gender, and sexual identity. After August makes a significant contribution to the scholarship on Wilson and his undeniable impact on American drama.
Patrick Maley is Associate Professor of English at Centenary University.
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Most authentic book compilation on the Oregon Trail I ever read. The way the diaries are brought to life from over 170 years ago is a remarkable achievement. Top book of year so far for me for today June 01, 2024 review Candice
This author is a breathe of fresh air in a world of lies and coverups. He brings ancient writings and new science to bring light to mankind. In this amazing work, the well known plato stories from antiquity are now put alongside this new discovery of tablets from beginning of time. This is the most complete explanation of Atlantis every brought to the public. Shame on the governments of Egypt and the world for hiding WHO BUILT THE PHYRAMIDS OF GIZA AND THE SPHINX. Once I read this book I knew why they hid this knowledge. They don't want a population to know how great the world used to be compared to know.
Randomly stumbled upon this book and I am shocked that I haven’t heard about it before. It’s hands down the best story I’ve read in years. People need to read this book. It needs to be turned into a book. This story is just plain awsome. M
This soulful book of personal poetry brought me into the past and into the present---and into my heart.
Read the first book and this 2nd one did not disappoint! Loved every chapter. More please!