Alan Nadel

The Theatre of August Wilson (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

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

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury UK
• Seitenzahl: 232
• Erscheinungstermin: 17. Mai 2018
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781472528322
• Artikelnr.: 53275968

Autorenporträt

Alan Nadel is William T. Bryan Chair in American Literature and Culture at the University of Kentucky, USA. He is the author of six books on post-WWII American literature, including: The Theatre of August Wilson (Methuen Drama, 2018), Demographic Angst: Cultural Narratives and American Films of the 1950s (2017), Containment Culture (1995), and Invisible Criticism: Ralph Ellison and the American Canon (1994). He has also edited of two volumes of essays on August Wilson, August Wilson: Completing the 20th-Century Cycle (2010) and May All Your Fences Have Gates (1994).