African Americans’ Searching For Self

August Wilson (1945-2005) is the most prominent African American playwright in the contemporary American theatre. Wilson has spent more than twenty years on writing a ten-play cycle of history plays, with each play in the cycle chronicling a specific decade of the twentieth century. His epic-like Century Cycle addresses central issues that have impacted African Americans in each decade of the20th century. Wilson’s theatrical achievement has attracted wide academic interest. Although many researchers and critics focused on the studies on Wilson and his works, the study of his black characters’self-searching is still rare in Chinese Mainland. Thus, this thesis will illustrate African Americans’self-searching through supernatural power and Blues based on the analysis of Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean, The Piano Lesson and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.In White-dominated society, some African Americans disconnect from the past and alienate from black community, and they always encountere frustration. Wilson believes that African Americans’searching for self relies on renewing ties with the miserable past, returning to the black community, and acknowledging their black heritage—Blues. African American characters in The Piano Lesson connect with the family past and gain strength through the ghosts of their ancestors. The wanderer in Gem of the Ocean returns to the black community through "spiritual connector". The band members in Ma Rainey s Black Bottom finally realize themselves through the power of Blues.Self-searching has always been the center of Wilson’s plays, so the studies of this thesis provide some practical implications. African Americans’searching for self through supernatural power and Blues in Wilson’s plays could assist further development of African American theatre and the position of African American literature.