WOMEN AS HOPE OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY IN AUGUST WILSON’S PLAYS
WOMEN AS HOPE OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY IN AUGUST WILSON’S PLAYS

Summary/Abstract: August Wilson’s plays present stories to typify black experience decade by decade in the twentieth century U.S. It is Wilson’s aim to bring the spirit of African American experience of life on stage over the decades of the twentieth century. In Wilson's plays there are spiritual issues to maintain ties for the characters with their cultural past; they struggle to establish the ties in present to see future clearly. Thus, one of the prominent messages that comes out of his work, especially for his African-American audience, is that they are destined to live in identity crisis if they deny their African-American as well as their African roots. Wilson draws upon the dynamics of spiritual values in order to convey the ancestral memory of African-Americans and explore historical dimensions of his work. In each play the characters put an immense offstage force that reminds the audiences of the distinctive African-American spirituality, history, culture and traditions. Wilson’s black art both functions as a distinctive art form in the field of drama and a guide for African-American community as well as American public. For his guidance, however, he chooses guiding/revealing women characters as hope of the future of African-American community in the U.S., which will be the focus of this study.

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