Ebook: August Wilson: completing the twentieth-century cycle

Contributors to this collection of 15 essays are academics in English, theater, and African American studies. They focus on the second half of Wilson's century cycle of plays, examining each play within the larger context of the cycle and highlighting themes within and across particular plays. Some topics discussed include business in the street in Jitney and Gem of the Ocean, contesting black male responsibilities in Jitney, the holyistic blues of Seven Guitars, violence as history lesson in Seven Guitars and King Hedley II, and ritual death and Wilson's female Christ. The book offers an index of plays, critics, and theorists, but not a subject index. Nadel is chair of American literature and culture at the University of Kentucky.;Beginning again, again: business in the street in Jitney and Gem of the ocean / Alan Nadel -- Contesting black male responsibilities in August Wilson's Jitney / Dana A. Williams -- Challenging the stereotypes of black manhood: the hidden transcript in Jitney / Kimmika L.H. Williams-Witherspoon -- The holyistic blues of Seven guitars / Steven C. Tracy -- August Wilson's Lazarus complex / Donald E. Pease -- If we must die: violence as history lesson in Seven guitars and King Hedley II / Soyica Diggs Colbert -- You can't make life happen without a woman: paternity and the pitfalls of structural design in King Hedley II and Seven guitars / Herman Beavers -- Turn your lamp down low! Aunt Ester dies in King Hedley II. Now what? / Sandra G. Shannon -- Ritual death and Wilson's female Christ / Vivian Gist Spencer and Yvonne Chambers -- Miss Tyler's two bodies: Aunt Ester and the legacy of time / Barbara Lewis -- August Wilson and the demands of capital / Nathan Grant -- Finite and final interruptions: using time in Radio golf / David Lacroix -- An exercise in peripheral vision: loyalties, ironies, and sports in Radio golf / Anthony Stewart -- Radio golf in the age of Obama / Harry J. Elam, Jr. -- Appendix: Discography for Seven guitars / Steven C. Tracy.