The Development of Black Theater in America: From Shadows to Selves / Edition 1

by Leslie Catherine Sanders

Overview

In The Development of Black Theater in America, Leslie Sanders examines the work of the American black theater’s five most productive playwrights: Willis Richardson, Randolph Edmonds, Langston Hughes, LeRoi Jones, and Ed Bullins.

Sanders sees the history of black theater as the process of creating a “black stage reality” while at the same time transforming conventions borrowed from white European culture into forms appropriate to black artists and audiences. The author argues that only when these things were accomplished could the aim of black playwrights, often articulated as “the realistic portrayal of the Negro,” be fully realized. This study also examines the changing nature of the dialogue black playwrights have held with the dominant tradition and how that dialogue has shaped their imaginations.

Sanders’ discussion of Richardson, Edmonds, Hughes, Jones, and Bullins provides a context for approaching the work of other black playwrights, such as James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, and Owen Dodson. And her argument provides a concrete way of understanding how the context of a dominant culture influences the artistic imagination of writers not of that culture, who must come to terms with its influences and transform it into a vehicle of their own.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807115824
Publisher:	Louisiana State University Press
Publication date:	08/01/1989
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Leslie Catherine Sanders is associate professor of Humanities and English and coordinator of writing programs at Atkinson College, York University, in North York, Ontario.

Editorial Reviews

Black theater in America has not been studied as seriously as it ought to be. This academic study will lead the way. It is not really a history but a thoughtful discussion of three major periods of black theater through the most representative playwrights of each period. After establishing the scope of her argument in the introduction, Sanders devotes meaty chapters to two early playwrights, Willis Richardson and Randolph Edmonds; a middle playwright, Langston Hughes; and two modern playwrights, LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Ed Bullins. She knows the works and the periods, her research is extensive, and her arguments are clear. For specialists. Thomas E. Luddy, Salem State Coll., Mass.

Library Journal