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USA: The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States
Erscheinungsjahr
2010
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
Oxford Journals 2020 Humanities
Beschreibungen/Notizen
Employing what he termed "blues" as a "flag bearer of self-definition," playwright August Wilson produced an impressive body of plays that record black American life in the 20th century and incorporate music as a critical element. Acknowledged for their sense of character, poetic language, and dramatic power, the plays focus on male protagonists, all of whom are in search of their own songs of identity, no matter how strident the voice. Their songs of quest - rendered largely within the blues poetics and in part, through the antics of African folklore trickster characters. Authentic as well are the song-voices of his women characters, though none of these women holds center stage. His female characters function, in fact, as integral counterparts of the blues and African folklore motifs that envelop his male protagonists. Davis examines female ownership of voice in Wilson's plays and also examines the musical blues voices of three of Wilson's female characters - Aunt Ester, Ma Rainey, and Berniece. Each represents Wilson's dramatic archetype of the strong matriarchal female, the bearer of memories and wisdom, whose songs - though varied in nature - are at the center of their lives and provide an anchor for themselves and others. Each possesses a song of fire, for, like those who drowned in the Middle Passage, they possess a burning tongue, an intensity and drive to arrive at truths through voice and music.