August Wilson’s Cultural Nationalism In The Piano Lesson

August Wilson(1945-2005), two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner, is one of the most important African American playwrights in American literature, who makes a great contribution to the development of American plays in the twentieth century. Self-claimed to be a cultural nationalist, Wilson believes the uniqueness of African American culture and devotes his plays to present African American history, culture as well as mythology,manifesting African American history and its distinctive culture. The Piano Lesson, a master work of Wilson which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990, is regarded as the best work that embodies his cultural nationalism.This thesis explores Wilson’s cultural nationalism in The Piano Lesson from three aspects.Wilson’s cultural nationalism first finds expression in his worries about the cultural break caused by the southern blacks’ migration from South to northern cities. Wilson thinks the exodus from South brings a great damage to African American culture. He advocates that African Americans should go back to South, connecting them with African culture. As a self-claimed cultural nationalist, Wilson also pays his attention to the spiritual life of African Americans. Wilson argues that African Americans should not take “the god of the slaveholder” as their own god. He maintains that African Americans should re-connect with African traditional religious rituals. By doing so, Wilson tries to free African Americans from spiritual oppression. Besides, as a self-claimed cultural nationalist, Wilson practices Afrocentric aesthetics like blues and black English in his play to against Eurocentric aesthetics. By doing so, Wilson models a new image of African Americans with a sense of ethnic pride.Wilson’s cultural nationalism shows his cultural confidence as an African American artist.By elevating African Americans’ daily life on the stage, Wilson offers a new perspective for African Americans to reconsider the choices they have made, calling on unification of African American community to fight together to win more rights. His great success not only promotes the position of African American culture in American society but stimulates thedevelopment of American drama. Also his success reflects the inclusiveness of American culture, and facilitates the diversity of American culture as well.