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August Wilson |
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August Wilson is of course an artist, and his work is capable of access through the modes of criticism that have traditionally been most frequently applied to works of narrative and dramatic art--namely, the FORMALIST, in an analysis of the structural and other formal strategies in his plays as vehicles for the communication of theme, especially in terms of the influence of the blues and other components of popular African-American culture, and the PSYCHOLOGICAL, in an analysis of his characters and their motivations, a mode that is particularly relevant to Wilson's work, given the intense and sometime violent actions and reactions of the people in his plays.
But most critics of his work have, as is customary with any writer, followed the leads provided by the texts themselves and the author's own statements about them, as well as his statements about his work overall and his general aesthetic principles. In Wilson's case, that has of course led to a heavy emphasis upon HISTORICAL and SOCIOLOGICAL criticism, as well as an exploration of the MYTHOLOGICAL dimension in his dramas, as his critics seek to come to terms with Wilson's project of an exploration of black life in America. There has also been a fair amount of attention to Wilson's plays through the perspective of GENDER studies, as shown by one essay in the Elkins anthology and no fewer than three in the Nadel compilation.
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