Critical Companions: The Theatre of August Wilson (Hardcover)

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 he 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 study is augmented by a small collection of essays by two other major scholars: Harry Elam and Donald Pease.