August Wilson in Context

Chronicling August Wilson's career and legacy, this guide demonstrates his ongoing significance within present-day culture and politics.

Khalid Y. Long (Edited by), Isaiah Matthew Wooden (Edited by)

9781009363211, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 June 2025

412 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.8 cm, 0.73 kg

August Wilson is one of the twentieth century's most important and acclaimed playwrights. This volume demonstrates Wilson's significance to contemporary theatre, culture, and politics by providing fresh and compelling insights into his life, practices, and contributions as an artist and public intellectual. Across four thematically organized sections, contributors situate Wilson's work in his social, cultural and political contexts, examine ongoing developments in Wilson studies, explore the production contexts of his plays, and explicate his dramaturgical sensibilities and strategies. This is the authoritative guide to Wilson's career and artistic legacy for students, theatre practitioners, and general readers interested in this remarkable figure.

Introduction Khalid Y. Long and Isaiah Matthew Wooden
Part I. Influences and Inspirations: 1. Pittsburgh's Hill District: the people, the places, the history Laurence Glasco
2. Walking the streets of the city: August Wilson's place in American theatre Heather S. Nathans
3. August Wilson and the chitlin circuit Rashida Z. and Shaw McMahon
4. Jorge Luis Borges and August Wilson Paul Devlin
5. Seeing and being, the part and the whole: the influence of Romare Bearden on August Wilson Jon Dietrick
6. Of 'manners and rituals': Baldwin, Bullins and the portrayals of Black life Ernest L. Gibson III
7. August Wilson as predecessor Patrick Maley
Part II. Politics and Debates: 8. August Wilson's women Leticia L. Ridley
9. Black masculinity and homosocial bonding in August Wilson's dramas J. Ken Stuckey
10. What is this 'Africa' in August Wilson's plays and scholarship? Sandra L. Richards
11. 'In my mother's house': August Wilson's portrait of the Black family Sandra G. Shannon
12. Transformative movements: August Wilson and the great migration Ladrica Menson-Furr
13. August Wilson wrestles with the Black middle class Lisa B. Thompson
14. After the reckoning: revisiting August Wilson's 'The Ground on Which I Stand' in the wake of Black Lives Matter Aviva Helena Neff
15. The enduring charge of August Wilson's 'I want a Black director' Isaiah Matthew Wooden
Part III. Productions and Collaborations: 16. August Wilson at Penumbra Macelle Mahala
17. August Wilson, Chicago, and the Goodman theatre Megan E. Geigner
18. From 1984 to 2024: August Wilson on Broadway Christopher Bell
19. Directing August Wilson on the British stage: Paulette Randall's productions of 'The Piano Lesson' and 'Fences' Lynette Goddard
20. African American cinematic language and the American century cycle Monica White Ndounou
21. Creating dangerous music: the August Wilson archive at the University of Pittsburgh Library System Leah Mickens and William Daw
22. Directing Wilson: a roundtable conversation with Denise Chapman, TammyRa' Jackson, Ron O. J. Parson, Mark Clayton Southers, Timothy Douglas, Seret Scott, and Bartlett Sher DeRon S. Williams
23. Cultural magpies: a conversation with Jack Magaw and Regina García Khalid Y. Long
24. Designing August: a conversation with Constanza Romero and David Gallo Willa J. Taylor
Part IV. Critical and Comparative Contexts: 25. Aunt Ester and performing memory Omiyẹmi (Artisia) Green
26. Redefining American theatre: August Wilson and David Henry Hwang Khalid Y. Long
27. Uneasy lie the heads that wear the crowns: constructing a spiritual center in 'The Emperor Jones and King Hedley II' Donald P. Gagnon
28. The influence of images: Hank Aaron and the Little Rock Nine as sources of dramatic tension in 'Fences' Ellen Bonds
29. August Wilson's generative 'Gem' for re-embodiment, materiality, and migratory transformation Iyanna Hamby
30. August Wilson and dramaturgy: discovering oral traditions in the American century cycle Melonnie Walker.

Subject Areas: Theatre studies [AN]