ABSTRACT
Calling the American theater the most incisive record of American culture and society might seem like saying that the local strip joint is the best archive for the writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein. August Wilson was now making race a major issue of the American theater. The theater work of the entire decade existed in almost self-conscious contrast to the alienated revolt of the 1920s and the radical protests of the 1930s. Whereas the 1920s and the 1930s were characterized by alienation and protest, the 1940s and 1950s were largely a celebration of "Our Country and Our Culture", to invoke the title of a notorious Partisan Review symposium. Part social protest, part personal statement, the race-based study of the self was a form of theatrical expression that has continued to the present day, meanwhile extending into an affirmation of gay pride and feminism.
