THE DRAMA OF AUGUST WILSON: FENCING A NEW IDENTITY IN AFRICAN AMERICAN THEATRICAL IMAGINATION.

What is the image of the Black in contemporary American society, and how is it represented in drama, a form of artistic expression where African American voice has long been silenced by stereotypes and editorial marginality? This is the question which black playwright August Wilson tries to answer in an unusual theatrical production. Gifted with a talent for catching dialect and accents, which ironically contributed to fight down his image and voice in American drama, Wilson enriches his pieces with his poetical skills he learned to use in his early days as artist. He notably shows that the African American destiny is open to other possibilities than what the racist society offered. More specifically in Fences (1986), he shows that the African American can find wholeness if he accepts to work hard and uses his rich cultural heritage. These, he says, are what will make him a responsible person.