History is an issue of great meaning within the works of August Wilson. In this paper shall be analysed through which channels and with which methods the author
transports not only the history of a family, but also the history of slavery interwoven with the experiences of the characters and their ancestors in the award winning novel The Piano Lesson. In this process of analysis we will find, that Wilson proposes a concept of memory that can be summed up with the term “kommunikatives Gedächtnis” which was coined by Jan and Aleida Assmann and further developed by Harald Welzer. For better understanding the term “communicative memory” will be used instead. In his play Wilson uses the method of storytelling. Through this we can see how the characters within the play communicate with each other and on one level transport communicative memory. But on the other level the reader becomes a silent listener participating in these conversations and in this role is able to read historical elements from the subtext of the stories told. In the last chapter August Wilson’s way of communicating memory will be compared to Toni Morrison’s approach in Site of Memory. What the reader finds in the first lines of the play is a short description of the setting.
This short text tells about the Charles’ house and the people who live in it. Most of the description however is concerned with the piano. “What time or period is the setting for The Piano Lesson? That was the first question asked by the late great Chinese actor and director Ying Roucheng after he read the play in 1991.” His confusion concerning the time in which the action of the play is set can be understood easily, because nothing in the secondary text informs the reader about the temporal conditions of the play. It is necessary to take a closer look at the primary text to find the hints Wilson gives to define the temporal situation. The most prominent of those hints can be found in Doaker’s story about the piano when he says, that his older brother Boy Charles “would have been fifty-seven if he had lived. He died in 1911 when he was thirty-one years old.” Subsequently the reader has to do the math. Knowing this, the play must take place in the year 1936 or 1937.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Time and place
3. Communicative and cultural memory
4. Communicative memory in The Piano Lesson
4.1 Wining Boy and Cloetha
4.2 Wining Boy and the ghosts of the yellow dog
4.3 Crawley’s death
4.4 The History of the Charles family
5. Site of memory
6. Conclusion
Research Objectives and Core Topics
This paper examines how August Wilson employs storytelling as a mechanism for transporting individual and collective history within his play The Piano Lesson, specifically utilizing the theoretical framework of communicative memory to analyze how characters define their identity and past through conversational remembering.
- Application of Jan and Aleida Assmann’s and Harald Welzer’s theories of communicative memory.
- Analysis of family storytelling as a method for preserving African American history.
- The piano as a central repository for genealogical and historical narratives.
- Comparative study of Wilson’s methodology with Toni Morrison’s concept of "Site of Memory."
- The role of the reader/audience as a participant in the process of historical reconstruction.
Excerpt from the Book
4.4 The History of the Charles family
One of the most important parts of the play would be the scene in which Doaker enlightens Lymon about the history of the piano. Boy Willie obviously knows the story but seems in need of reminding and so this conversation actually becomes a memory talk from one Generation to the next. This demonstrates the ideal way how communicative memory would be kept alive. Doaker leads them “back to slavery time”19. Already the second sentence contains hints to the social and economic circumstances of this period: “our family was owned by a fellow named Robert Sutter.”20 In the following description the fact that “niggers” were “traded” and “sold” emphasises this historical view even more. In the same way that the reader could learn about the situation African Americans had to live in from the story of Crawley’s death, he can now learn about the circumstances in times of slavery. He now learns that Doaker’s and Wining Boy’s Grandmother Berniece would cook and talk to Mrs. Sutter but that at the same time she could be traded for an object just as if she would have been one herself.
Not only can the reader see, that human beings were treated like object but also that they had none of the rights the constitution would grant a citizen of the U.S.: “See, everything my granddaddy made Mr. Sutter owned cause he owned him.”21 The language in which Doaker’s lines are written supports the atmosphere of storytelling in a traditional way, when the older generation passed their memories on to the younger: “That’s when him and Mama Berniece got married. They called it jumping the broom. That’s how got married in them days.”22
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: Introduces the focus on how August Wilson transmits familial and slavery history through storytelling, utilizing the theoretical concept of "communicative memory."
2. Time and place: Discusses the temporal setting of the play, noting that Wilson avoids explicit exposition, forcing the reader to deduce the timeline through character dialogue.
3. Communicative and cultural memory: Defines the theoretical background, distinguishing between cultural (ritualized) and communicative (conversational/short-term) memory as proposed by Assmann and Welzer.
4. Communicative memory in The Piano Lesson: Analyzes how the Charles family engages in "family reunion mode" to share stories, thereby keeping their history alive.
4.1 Wining Boy and Cloetha: Examines how Wining Boy uses memory to construct his autobiographical identity after the death of his partner.
4.2 Wining Boy and the ghosts of the yellow dog: Explores the intersection of fictional, legendary, and autobiographical memory in the formation of personal history.
4.3 Crawley’s death: Details the conflicting memories of Berniece and Boy Willie, illustrating how traumatic events shape subjective recollection.
4.4 The History of the Charles family: Focuses on the piano as a primary vessel for preserving the collective narrative of the Charles family across generations.
5. Site of memory: Compares Wilson’s literary technique of filling historical gaps with fiction to Toni Morrison’s approach in her essay "The Site of Memory."
6. Conclusion: Summarizes the effectiveness of storytelling as a vehicle for ensuring that African American history remains active and remembered.
Keywords
August Wilson, The Piano Lesson, communicative memory, cultural memory, storytelling, conversational remembering, African American history, slavery, identity, family reunion, Harald Welzer, Jan Assmann, Toni Morrison, Site of Memory, literature.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the central focus of this academic paper?
The paper focuses on how August Wilson uses the method of storytelling in his play The Piano Lesson to convey the history of a family and the broader history of slavery through the theoretical lens of "communicative memory."
Which theoretical framework does the author apply?
The author primarily utilizes the theories of "communicative memory" developed by Jan and Aleida Assmann and further expanded by Harald Welzer.
What is the primary research goal?
The goal is to analyze the channels and methods by which the author transports historical narratives and how characters reconstruct their identities through the act of remembering.
How is the term "communicative memory" interpreted here?
It is viewed as a form of social, short-term memory that exists within communication and is constantly recreated through conversational interaction among group members.
What role does the piano play in the narrative?
The piano acts as a central medium for memory, preserving genealogical and historical data that might otherwise be lost through oral transmission alone.
Which specific methodology is used to analyze the text?
The study conducts a literary analysis of character dialogues, investigating how stories are told, how memories change over time, and how they contribute to individual and collective identity.
Why does the author compare Wilson to Toni Morrison?
The author draws a parallel between Wilson’s play and Morrison’s "Site of Memory" because both authors use artistic, often fictionalized strategies to reconstruct historical gaps and suppressed voices.
How does the play define the "temporal situation" for the reader?
Wilson does not provide a direct timeframe; instead, he incorporates specific hints—such as Doaker mentioning his brother's death—that require the reader to calculate the dates themselves.
How do the characters Berniece and Boy Willie differ in their recollection?
They differ in their perception of their husband's/brother-in-law's death, highlighting how personal emotions and the passage of time alter the construction of traumatic memories.
- Quote paper
- Andreas Fingas (Author), 2008, Writing history, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/113108
