ABSTRACT
In Two Trains Running, August Wilson uses three interlocutors to feed the spirit of the community with the moral-ethical imperatives of the past. Joining Aunt Ester and the diner’s jukebox, Wilson’s most striking device of ancestral wisdom is Risa Thomas, the enigmatic character with the scarred legs. Consistent with the aesthetic, political, and spiritual insurgency of the 1960s, Two Trains evidences Wilson’s exploration of self-determinism—the ethical premise to define, respect, and defend one’s self. The cultural environment of Wilson’s artistic development, existing Wilsonian scholarship, and historical data on the Yoruba presence and influence in the Atlantic world justifies the continuance of unearthing Yorùbá aesthetic practices within Wilson’s dramaturgy to expand public understanding of this cultural dynamic embedded within his work.
