Alan Nadel is professor of literature and film at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and author of Invisible Criticism: Ralph Ellison and the American Canon; Containment Culture: American Narratives, Postmodernism, and the Atomic Age; and Flatlining on the Field of Dreams: Cultural Narratives in the Films of President Reagan's America.
"In this carefully crafted volume, Alan Nadel pairs a variety of
essays on the plays of August Wilson's century cycle. Among the
many strengths of this collection is that the selections are well
connected thematically without being repetitive and that the
diverse interpretations are presented in a language and style that
are easily accessible, even for general readers. At the same time,
the multiplicity of meanings that can be derived from careful
readings of the social, cultural, and historical contexts of the
cycle will satisfy the most critical scholars."--Sandra Adell,
author, Double-Consciousness/Double Bind: Theoretical Issues in
Twentieth-Century Black Literature
"In this companion to May All Your Fences Have Gates, we have a
timely addition to the growing scholarship on August Wilson's
works. The focus on the second half of the cycle presents certain
problems, not least of which stem from the fact that Wilson's plays
were written 'out of order, ' simultaneously pointing forward and
looking back. In less capable hands, this aspect might be ignored
and the plays studied decade by decade, in a linear fashion. This
volume does not fall into that trap. Instead, Nadel and his
colleagues address the location of each play within the larger
context of the cycle, for the second half of the cycle and the
entire collection alike. As a result, we see that almost any theme
or motif within a single text finds echoes and reverberations in
other plays, thus affording us a view of Wilson's overall scheme
and challenging future scholarship of any single play to embrace
this holistic view of the cycle. No longer is it enough to say that
Wilson wrote a play or plays: whenever we consider any of his plays
we have to acknowledge the cycle. This book ensures that
perspective, one that is unique in the history of dramatic
literature."--Kim Pereira, author, August Wilson and the
African-American Odyssey
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