A Critical Discourse Analysis of Feminine and Masculine Identity in August Wilson’s Pittsburg Cycle

Abstract

In his collection of ten plays, The Pittsburg Cycle, August Wilson (1945-2005) presents the social dynamism of African Americans across the twentieth century America. In his plays, many newly freed African slaves move to the North, hoping to shape their identity as respectable citizens of great worth. They are, however, reckoned as foreigners in a new habitus. Since they have lost contact with their past heritage and have no access to their social codes as a source of power, they search for means through which they can concretize the song they carry within themselves as a sign of their true African heritage. Through the theory of critical discourse analysis, this article focuses on Michel Foucault’s theory of discourse to study, analyze, and compare the discourse of both male and female characters of the plays. According to the age-old western tradition, male discourse represents power, assurance, and certainty in contrast to female discourse imbued with characteristics opposite to the mentioned ones. This article aims to explore how Wilson subverts the male and female discourse to create a nongendered African soul, who embodies characteristics of both sexes.