The Sound of Silence: Women Voices in the American Century Cycle by August Wilson
The Sound of Silence: Women Voices in the American Century Cycle by August Wilson

Summary/Abstract: Male characters make up the largest part of the cast of the ten plays comprised in The American Century Cycle by August Wilson. The present paper will focus on the female characters of the plays, on the courage they find in themselves to speak up to their male partners, and on the ways in which they are represented throughout the Cycle.Feminist theorists such as bell hooks and Frances Beal provide the general framework for this paper to show that the female characters of the plays are as important as their male counterparts. Theories of trauma and memory enable the paper to focus on how women are influenced throughout their lives by traumatic experiences and how memory helps in dealing with these traumas.

• Details
• Contents