윌슨의 작품에 투영된 흑인 여성상 연구

Abstract

August Wilson is a prolific Afro-American playwright in American contemporary drama. As a representative Afro-American playwright, his plays seek variety and genuineness of Afro-Americans’ lives. Although his plays are inclined to be somewhat malecentric, it is noteworthy that his female characters are subjective and independent in terms of their roles in family and their music, the Blues. In particular, two plays of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Fences are examined for analysis. These two plays provide specific perspectives on Wilson’s female characters. Are black women just ‘black’ or just ‘women’? In short, his female characters are summed up as the Blues and blackness. The Blues singer Ma represents the importance of their music ‘blues,’ which symbolizes Afro-Americans’ specific experience and history of slavery. In Ma Rainey, Ma stands subjective stance as a blues singer. Unlike Ma, Rose seems less independent, however, playing a role of a guardian for her family. In these plays, the meaning of space is of significance in that spatial concept is related to their existence and represents the peculiarity of sociohistoric constraints. Wilson’s women defies some ingrained memories as slaves. In conclusion, searching for the meaning of their body, presenting their music and assertion as individuals, Wilson’s women characters are in stance of existing as diasporic beings in American society.