Double Consciousness In August Wilson's The Piano Lesson

Since his successful play Ma Rainey's Black Bottom in 1984, August Wilson has been accepted by the critics as one of the greatest playwrights in America, enjoying the great fame, after Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller as the fourth greatest playwright in the US. His two plays, Fences and The Piano Lesson won respectively the Pulitzer Prize in 1987 and 1990. And The Piano Lesson which has been put on TV has a significant influence on America.This thesis analyzes the Double Consciousness reflected in The Piano Lesson from the perspective of Black Aestheticism in order to reach the attitudes of August Wilson to the Black Culture and White Culture.The first chapter of this thesis is to give a brief introduction of how the Double Consciousness plays a role in the tradition of black writing. In this part, Du Bois's Double Consciousness is interpreted from the perspective from Hegel's philosophical theory and August Wilson's attitude toward the Black Culture and White Culture is exposed as well.The second chapter is to analyze how August Wilson integrates the African tradition into his play to present the black history in America and how he affirms the Black Consciousness by endowing the black history with supernatural power. The third chapter is to analyze the function of the White Consciousness in constructing the whole self of the black people. It focuses on the characters' attitudes toward the past and present as well as the threat of the White Consciousness to the Black Consciousness.The conclusion is that in the play The Piano Lesson the black people's whole self is achieved through the strife between the Black Consciousness and White Consciousness. The relationship between the Black Consciousness and White Consciousness in the play is both in a unity and in opposition with each other.