장애와 어거스트 윌슨

Disability and August Wilson

This paper attempts to re-read August Wilson’s three plays-Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984), Fences (1987), and Two Trains Running (1992)-by turning to disability studies and focusing on three disabled characters of the plays-Sylvester, Gabriel, and Hambone. The paper first argues for the necessity to introduce a disability studies perspective based on the cultural model into the study of Wilson’s plays. It then (re)reads Wilson’s representation of the three disabled characters. Through this (re)reading, the paper exposes Wilson’s acceptance of the medical-model-based way of looking at the disabled and his opportunistic use of disability as a metaphor. The paper ends with a discussion of implications of the representation of negative images of the disabled and the use of disability for an exclusively metaphorical purpose. In particular, it points to the glaring gap between Wilson’s racial discourse on which his reputation rests and his perspective on disability which marginalizes the disabled.