The Piano Lesson

Wilson, August

doi:10.1215/01610775-19-3-35

Cited by 7 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…As a result, Berniece refused to sell the piano, believing it to have spiritual significance and to be a valuable record of her ancestor's history as "money can't buy that piano cost. You can't sell your soul for money" (Wilson 1990: 50).…”

Section: The Piano Lesson: the Representation Of The African Legacymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Piano Lesson of August Wilson as the Representation of the African Cultural Heritage

Hadi

2022

ijahs

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The heritage of nations has always been a fundamental pillar of the individual’s cultural identity. The twentieth century has a great interest in cultural heritage by means of drama, as it articulates political, social, cultural, and even psychological issues under the umbrella of globalization. Afro-American playwrights have focused on cultural identity, which directly leads to their heritage, as what has been done by Wilson, who exploited his talent in dramatizing the Afro-American people’s lives. Wilson used his play to demonstrate and defend the values and culture in conflict with American and white culture, as well as to demonstrate that Afro-Americans can produce the finest literary writing to enrich American literature. So, heritage is one of the reasons for preserving individuality, as people have no identity if they do not have cultural heritage. The Piano Lesson is looking for acceptance or recognition that African culture is a part of the world’s culture that should be respected. In addition, Wilson encouraged his people to strongly seize their traditions and culture to get their identity as others, and he accomplished his mission.

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Section: The Piano Lesson: the Representation Of The African Legacymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Piano Lesson of August Wilson as the Representation of the African Cultural Heritage

Hadi

2022

ijahs

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“…Critically examining Wilson's plays, along with some of his most memorable Black, male characters, the author offers an interesting critique of prison, power, powerlessness, and Black rage. In at least seven plays, written within 20 years from 1979 to 1999, Wilson's larger than life; but sometimes troubled Black male characters-like Harold Loomis in Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Wilson, 1988); Sylvester and Levee in Ma Rainey (Wilson, 1985(Wilson, [1981); Doaker, Wining Boy, Boy Willie, and Lymon in Piano Lesson (Wilson, 1990); Troy Maxson in Fences (Wilson, 1986); and Booster in Jitney (1979) have been victimized, for the most part, for simply living while Black. Intimately acquainted with Black rage and some of its consequences, under analysis, each of Wilson's pivotal male characters bears the physical, psychological, and emotional scars from surviving incarceration in America.…”

Section: Valuable Definitions From August Wilson's Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Piano Lesson, Wilson (1990) introduces his audience to generational narratives of incarceration-some warranted and some not so much. For African Americans-in particular males (but, likewise for many poor, unlucky Black women too) following the passage of the 13th amendment, the penal system became the outgrowth of white rage and the loophole through which African American people could be legally re-enslaved.…”

Section: Piano Lesson;mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Narratives about the assault, violence, public indignation and the imprisonment of Black men, abound in August Wilson's work. From Harold Loomis in Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Wilson, 1988), to the near arrest of Sylvester in Ma Rainey (Wilson, 1985(Wilson, [1981), to the collective, generational memories of Doaker, Wining Boy, Boy Willie, and Lymon about time spent incarcerated on Parchman Farms in Piano Lesson (Wilson, 1990), the 15 years Troy Maxson recounts to his eldest son about his incarceration for killing the man that shot him in Fences (Wilson, 1986); to Booster's journey in Jitney (1979), Wilson's (2002) work is replete with a provocative critique on the historical assault on African American male identity. Wilson's work highlights this country's on-going use of incarceration and the prison industrial complex as a mechanism to check and contain Black Rage.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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RAGE!, Retaliation, and Retribution: Recurring Themes in August Wilson’s Work

Williams-Witherspoon

2021

Journal of Black Studies

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Following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many others, recent protest in Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington, DC, LA, Portland and a host of other locations, both, stateside and abroad are being framed in the public discourse as everything from radical resistance to public madness and everything in between. From the Black Lives Matter movement activist to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion advocates, one of the key components in, both, radical resistance strategies or public expressions of cultural madness, is a ground swelling of rage! But what is rage? How can we recognize it? Historically, what has been the consequences of Black rage? And in this unique, historical moment, what if anything can be done to leverage it? Mining August Wilson’s work for definitions, instances, and consequences of Black rage, this paper interrogates August Wilson’s narratives on rage as a way to talk about the historiography and commodifying of Black rage as a way of victimizing and disposing of Black bodies in America. In this way, we hope to offer suggestions in this historical moment on how to leverage Black rage, rather than to be snared by it.

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“…This paper therefore attempts to use the dilemma tale type as an interpretative narrative framework to understand Wilson's (1990) Pulitzer award winning play, The Piano Lesson. In this play, August Wilson uses the dilemma folkloric type to unlock the interaction between the past and the present which is understood, at the end of the play, to be the apprehension of the meaning of legacy to the African American.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Framing the Problematics of Choice and Legacy: A Reading of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson as a Dilemma Tale

Bentum

2021

Journal of Black Studies

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The choice for a particular narrative architecture has been a major concern for the literary writer and to the African American literary writer, the use of African oral literary elements has been a resourceful option. The present study hypothesizes that August Wilson uses the dilemma tale as a narrative architecture in his The Piano Lesson play and argues that this narrative style helps Wilson to frame the dialogic surrounding what legacy is to the African American. The study reveals that tradition is problematic for the African American to conceive. The conclusion is that the dilemma tale type as a narrative style helps to understand that tradition or, legacy is a complex phenomenon for the African American to fathom.

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The Piano Lesson

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

The Piano Lesson of August Wilson as the Representation of the African Cultural Heritage

The Piano Lesson of August Wilson as the Representation of the African Cultural Heritage

RAGE!, Retaliation, and Retribution: Recurring Themes in August Wilson’s Work

Framing the Problematics of Choice and Legacy: A Reading of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson as a Dilemma Tale

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