August Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle ─ Critical Perspectives on the Plays

Shannon describes playwright August Wilson (1945-2005) as an autoethnographer, storyteller, medium, and culture bearer, who placed himself in his ten-play cycle as both subject and object and as an “African-in-America”, and who used dramaturgy as a means of navigating the complexities of his life as the child of a white German immigrant and a black mother. Shannon presents a collection of essays that trace Wilson’s personal development over his career. Thirteen essays are: “the emancipated century”; “a big bend there, a tree by the shore”; Two Trains Running; World War II History/history; the use of stereotype and archetype in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; Gem of the Ocean’s fugitive movements; reclaiming the mother; a century lacking progress; “he gonna give me my ham”; resurrecting “phantom limb[s] of the dismembered slave and god”; epiphany and the “drama of souls”; conjuring Africa in August Wilson’s plays; re-evaluating the legacy of the ten-play cycle. There are notes, works cited, and about the contributors. Annotation c2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Sandra G. Shannon is a professor of African American Literature in the English department at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Two seminal books along with numerous chapters, and articles on Wilson have established her as a leading scholar in Wilson Studies. She was a key consultant for and contributor to the highly acclaimed PBS American Masters documentary, August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand (February 2015). She lives in Bowie, Maryland.