Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-65f69f4695-q7d28 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-06-26T09:34:32.403Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 26 - Redefining American Theatre

August Wilson and David Henry Hwang

from Part IV - Critical and Comparative Contexts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2025

By
Khalid Y. Long
Edited by
Khalid Y. Long  and
Isaiah Matthew Wooden
Khalid Y. Long
Affiliation:
Howard University, Washington DC
Isaiah Matthew Wooden
Affiliation:
Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania
Get access

Summary

This chapter places August Wilson and David Henry Hwang in critical context by offering a survey of their careers that reveals just how complementary their work is, redefining theatre on its own terms. While Wilson and Hwang’s dramatic projects may differ where intentionality is concerned, their legacies have permeated throughout every sector of the theatre – from being produced in commercial arenas to becoming subjects of rigorous scholarly study across disciplines. Collectively, their dramaturgy engages with the frictions and anxieties of being a minority in the United States. Their work also explores intersecting themes such as family, identity, and claiming space through the complexities of race, religion, and gender. Both have employed elements of magical realism, and their commercial success has led to them being deemed principal representatives for their racial/cultural groups within the canon of American theatre.

Keywords

August WilsonAmerican Century CycleDavid Henry Hwang1980sCultural Ambassadors

Information

Type
Chapter
Information
August Wilson in Context , pp. 319 - 329
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Further Reading

Cooperman, Robert, “Across the Boundaries of Cultural Identity: An Interview with David Henry Hwang,” Staging Difference: Cultural Pluralism in American Theatre and Drama, edited by Maufort, Marc (New York: Peter Lang, 1995).Google Scholar
Marilyn Elkins, August Wilson: A Casebook (New York: Routledge, 2013).Google Scholar
Isaac, Dan, “The O’Neill Memorial Theater Center: A Place for Playwrights,” Educational Theatre Journal 24, no. 1 (1972): 18–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esther, Kim Lee, A History of Asian American Theatre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).Google Scholar
Plum, Jay, “Blues, History, and the Dramaturgy of August Wilson,” African American Review 27, no. 4 (1993): 561–567CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sweet, Jeffrey, The O’Neill: The Transformation of Modern American Theater (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×