Reviewed by:

• After August: Blues, August Wilson, and American Drama by Patrick Maley
• Alan Nadel

In 2015, Rachel Dolezal, then head of the Spokane, Washington, chapter of the NAACP, was revealed to be perming her hair and wearing brown makeup in order to pass as African American, despite having neither a historical nor genetic connection to Americans of African descent. She was, she claimed, “transracial,” in the same way that some people are transgender, applying to racial identity the concept articulated by Judith Butler that gender is performative. Dolezal was, however, widely derided for using Butler to legitimize what some considered a version of blackface. It is in this context that one can imagine the dismay of seeing Patrick Maley attribute Dolezal’s rationale to August Wilson: “Race for Wilson,” he says, “turns out to be performative in much the same way that Judith Butler theorizes gender” (46).

In Maley’s defense, he seems unaware that “performative” is not a synonym for “performed” or “in performance” (in the same way that he appears not to know that “humanism” is not a synonym for “humanity”). Rather, Butler is using speech act theory to distinguish performatives, that is, words that effect a change (e.g., “I do,” in a wedding ceremony) from those that designate a condition (e.g., “I do [have a cold]”). But Maley’s injustice to Wilson also derives from misreading Wilson’s answers to interview questions about his blackness, given his white father. Although the answer is obvious (Wilson, a Black man from a Black family headed by a Black mother, and identified as such by their community, was aptly perceived and treated as Black throughout his life, because he was), Maley incorrectly interprets as “ambiguity” (46) Wilson’s impatience with the topic. Wilson’s discomfort more likely reflected something akin to the way Frederick Douglass might have reacted had the former slave been asked why he “chose” to identify with his Black mother over his white father. Wilson’s alleged ambiguity, however, anchors Maley’s thesis that Wilson craved a sense of identity, manifest as a “persistent need to perform black self-hood” (46). Unfortunately, this assertion of a world with, à la Dolezal, “transracial” potentials, is less a faux pas than a foundational tenet of the book, implicit throughout, and expressed explicitly in comments such as, “The Hill District may have offered Wilson no other racial identity than blackness” (47). Identity exists for Maley, therefore, in the confirmation that one has pulled off a successful performance. In this context, Maley believes that “call-and-response,” which he considers to be any appeal for audience affirmation, defines the blues (a definition under which even the “Declaration of Independence” is blues). Thus, Wilson’s need to craft an audience-ratified performance of identity makes Wilson a “bluesman.”

This straw man—Wilson craving his identity—doesn’t resemble the August Wilson I knew, a man who refused to be compromised by external affirmation. In Fences, Troy Maxson screams at Corey, “Who the hell say I got to like you?,” thereby renouncing the value Maley places—and that he claims the blues places— on identity as craving affirmation. “Don’t you go through life,” Troy emphatically states, “worrying about if somebody like you or not.” Wilson therefore shunned the luxuries that Hollywood producers attempted to heap on him because, as he told me, “You get used to it, so when they start to take it away, they got you!” His rejecting Hollywood seduction mirrors his refusing, much earlier, as a part-time cook earning less than ninety dollars a week, a Broadway contract that usurped his artistic control despite the contract’s big advance (six figures, in 2020 dollars). And certainly Wilson at age fifteen must have had a powerful sense of identity to quit high school because [End Page 244] a teacher believed his research paper was too good for him to have written it. (Maley repeatedly claims that this event exemplified Wilson’s rejection of a white teacher’s evaluation, although, in fact, the teacher was Black.) Wilson...

审核人：

• 8月之后：布鲁斯，奥古斯特·威尔逊和帕特里克·马利（Patrick Maley）的美国戏剧
• 艾伦·纳德尔（Alan Nadel）

我ñ2015年，雷切尔·多莱刹，然后是华盛顿州斯波坎市的负责人，全国有色人种协进章，显露是烫发她的头发，穿着棕色的妆容以通为非洲裔美国人，尽管有既不是美国人的历史，也没有基因关联非洲人后裔。她声称自己是“跨种族的”，就像有些人是跨性别的一样，将朱迪思·巴特勒（Judith Butler）所表达的性别是具有表现力的概念应用于种族认同。但是，多勒扎尔因使用巴特勒使某些人认为是黑脸的版本合法化而受到广泛嘲笑。正是在这种情况下，人们可以想象看到帕特里克·马利（Patrick Maley）将多尔扎尔的理论基础归功于奥古斯特·威尔逊（August Wilson）的失望：他说：“为威尔逊的种族而论，实际上是有效的，就像朱迪思·巴特勒（Judith Butler）提出性别理论一样”（46 ）。

在马利的辩护中，他似乎没有意识到“表演性”不是“表演”或“表现”的同义词（就像他似乎不知道“人道主义”不是“人类”的同义词一样）。相反，巴特勒使用言语行为理论来区分表演者，即影响改变的词语（例如，婚礼中的“我愿意”）与指定条件的词语（例如，。，“我确实[感冒]”）。但是马利对威尔逊的不公还源于误读威尔逊回答给他的白人父亲的关于黑人的采访问题。尽管答案很明显（威尔逊，一个来自黑人家庭的黑人，由黑人母亲领导，并在其社区中被确认为黑人，因为他一生都被恰当地视为黑人），但马利错误地将其解释为“模棱两可”（46）威尔逊（Wilson）对这个话题不耐烦。威尔逊的不适更有可能反映出类似于弗雷德里克·道格拉斯（Frederick Douglass）可能做出的反应，如果这位前奴隶被问及为什么他“选择”与黑人母亲比白人父亲同身份，他可能会做出反应。然而，威尔逊所谓的模棱两可，使马利关于威尔逊渴望认同感的论断成为现实，表现为“坚持黑人自我掩饰的持续需要”（46）。不幸的是，这种宣称拥有“多种族”潜力的世界的主张，与其说是书的基本宗旨，还不如说是虚假的。除了黑人之外，没有其他种族认同”（47）。因此，在确认一个人已经取得了成功的表演后，马里的身份就存在了。在这种情况下，马利认为，“通话和回应”被认为是对听众肯定的诉求，它定义了蓝调（即使是“独立宣言”，也是蓝调的定义）。因此，威尔逊对制作观众认可的身份表现的需求使威尔逊成为“蓝调”。这不是书的基本原则，而是书中的基本原则，它是隐含的，并在评论中明确表达，例如：“希尔区可能没有给威尔逊提供除黑人以外的其他种族身份”（47）。因此，在确认一个人已经取得了成功的表演后，马里的身份就存在了。在这种情况下，马利认为，“通话和回应”被认为是对听众肯定的诉求，它定义了蓝调（即使是“独立宣言”，也是蓝调的定义）。因此，威尔逊对制作观众认可的身份表现的需求使威尔逊成为“蓝调”。这不是书的基本原则，而是书中的基本原则，它是隐含的，并在评论中明确表达，例如：“希尔区可能没有给威尔逊提供除黑人以外的其他种族身份”（47）。因此，在确认一个人已经取得了成功的表演后，马里的身份就存在了。在这种情况下，马利认为，“通话和回应”被认为是对听众肯定的诉求，它定义了蓝调（即使是“独立宣言”，也是蓝调的定义）。因此，威尔逊对制作观众认可的身份表现的需求使威尔逊成为“蓝调”。确认已经取得了成功的表演。在这种情况下，马利认为，“通话和回应”被认为是对听众肯定的诉求，它定义了蓝调（即使是“独立宣言”，也是蓝调的定义）。因此，威尔逊对制作观众认可的身份表现的需求使威尔逊成为“蓝调”。确认已经取得了成功的表演。在这种情况下，马利认为，“通话和回应”被认为是对听众肯定的诉求，它定义了蓝调（即使是“独立宣言”，也是蓝调的定义）。因此，威尔逊对制作观众认可的身份表现的需求使威尔逊成为“蓝调”。

这位威尔逊渴望自己身份的稻草人，与我所知的奥古斯特·威尔逊（August Wilson）不一样，他拒绝接受外界的肯定而受到损害。在栅栏，特洛伊·麦克森（Troy Maxson）向科里大喊：“谁该说我要喜欢你？”，从而放弃了马里（Maley）所享有的价值-他声称自己是忧郁症-对其身份的渴望得到肯定。特洛伊强调说：“你不要过一辈子，担心有人是否喜欢你。” 因此，威尔逊避免了好莱坞制片人试图在他身上堆砌的奢侈品，因为正如他告诉我的那样，“你已经习惯了，所以当他们开始拿走它时，他们就抓住了你！” 他拒绝好莱坞的诱惑反映了他更早的拒绝，因为他是一名兼职厨师，每周收入不到90美元，这是一张百老汇合同，尽管该合同取得了很大进展，但篡夺了他的艺术控制权（六位数，2020年美元）。当然，十五岁的威尔逊必须具有强烈的认同感才能退出高中，因为[完第244页]一位老师认为他的研究论文对他来说太好了，无法撰写。（马里一再声称此事件表明威尔逊拒绝白人老师的评估，尽管事实上，该老师是黑人。）威尔逊...