Le Simplegadi

Nato nel 1945 a Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, August Wilson è stato il drammaturgo afroamericano più prolifico e rappresentato del Novecento. Il Century Cycle, un corpus di dieci testi teatrali che ripercorre la storia afroamericana del ventesimo secolo, è espressione del realismo spirituale di Wilson, un tipo di teatro che, pur aderendo alla tradizione realista euroamericana, vi immette elementi di innovazione ispirati alla musica blues e alla cosmologia Yoruba. Il saggio prende in analisi questa duplice matrice culturale per dimostrare come la drammaturgia di Wilson, pur tenendo fede al principio aristotelico della mìmesis che governa il dramma realista, sia permeata da un’estetica nera. Nel concepire un teatro in cui musica e parola si compenetrano in un contesto performativo rituale, Wilson ripristina l’armonia tra dionisiaco e apollineo auspicata da Friedrich Nietzsche, rianimando quello che secondo il filosofo tedesco era lo spirito primigenio della tragedia greca e immettendo al tempo stesso un èthos inconfondibilmente afroamericano nel canone teatrale occidentale.

DOI: 10.17456/SIMPLE-163

Parole chiave
August Wilson, tragedia, blues, Yoruba, Nietzsche.

Bibliografia

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