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Bridging the Valley of Nihilism in August Wilson's Fences

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Bridging the Valley of Nihilism in August Wilson's Fences ISSN : REVUE INTER-TEXTUAL Revue semestrielle en ligne des Lettres et Sciences Humaines du Département d’Anglais adossée au Groupe de recherches en Littérature et Linguistique anglaise (GRELLA) Université Alassane Ouattara République de Côte d’Ivoire Directeur de Publication: M. Pierre KRAMOKO, Maitre de Conférences Adresse postale: 01 BP V 18 Bouaké 01 Téléphone: (225) 01782284/(225) 01018143 Courriel: [email protected] Numéro ISSN: Lien de la Revue: http://inter-textual.univ-ao.edu.ci ADMINISTRATION DE LA REVUE DIRECTEUR DE PUBLICATION M. Pierre KRAMOKO, Maître de Conférences COMITÉ DE RÉDACTION - Professeur Guézé Habraham Aimé DAHIGO, Professeur Titulaire - Dr Vamara KONÉ, Maître de Conférences - Dr Kouamé ADOU, Maître de Conférences - Dr Kouamé SAYNI, Maître de Conférences - Dr Koffi Eugène N’GUESSAN, Maître de Conférences - Dr Gossouhon SÉKONGO, Maître de Conférences - Dr Philippe Zorobi TOH, Maître de Conférences - Dr Jérome Koffi KRA, Maître de Conférences COMITÉ SCIENTIFIQUE Prof. Azoumana Ouattara, Université Alassane Ouattara, Côte d’Ivoire Prof. Coulibaly Daouda, PhD,Université Alassane Ouattara, Côte d’Ivoire Prof. Djako Arsène, Université Alassane Ouattara, Côte d’Ivoire Prof. Francis Akindès, Université Alassane Ouattara, Côte d’Ivoire Prof. Lawrence P. Jackson, Johns Hopkins University, USA Prof. Léa N’Goran-Poamé, Université Alassane Ouattara, Côte d’Ivoire Prof. Mamadou Kandji, Université Ckeick Anta Diop, Sénégal Prof. Margaret Wright-Cleveland, Florida State University, USA Prof. Kenneth Cohen, St Mary’s College of Maryland, USA Prof. Nubukpo Komlan Messan, Université de Lomé, Togo Prof. Séry Bailly, Université Félix Houphouët Boigny, Abidjan Prof. Zigui Koléa Paulin, Université Alassane Ouattara, Côte d’Ivoire TABLE OF CONTENTS/ TABLE DES MATIÈRES 1. Kouadio Germain N’GUESSAN, GENDER HIERARCHY AND THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF FEMININITY: THE IMPOSED MASK.…………1 - 19 2. Goh Théodore TRA BI, HISTORIOGRAPHY OF NARRATIVE THEORIES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.…………………………………………20 - 37 3. Ezoulé Miézan Isaac KANGAH, BRITISH POLITICAL SCENE IN JONATHAN COE’S THE CLOSED CIRCLE.……………………………38 - 56 4. Gabrielle KEITA, UNCOMPLETED ASPECT MARKING FROM STANDARD ENGLISH TO NIGERIAN PIDGIN: A COMPARATIVE STUDY.…………………………………………………………………………57 - 68 5. Constant Ané KONÉ, REMEMBERING SLAVERY MEMORY IN GAYL JONES’ CORREGIDORA.…………………………………………………….69 - 88 6. Germain ASSAMOI, MODALITY IN SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE, BETWEEN RADICAL AND EPISTEMIC.………………………………89 - 105 7. Koffi Eugène N’GUESSAN, BRIDGING THE VALLEY OF NIHILISM IN AUGUST WILSON’S FENCES.…………………………………………106 - 121 8. Souleymane TUO, SLAVE REBELLION IN ANDRE PHILIPPUS BRINK’S AN INSTANT IN THE WIND.……………………………………………122 - 139 9. Dolourou SORO, A MARXIST READING OF ERNEST GAINES’ A LESSON BEFORE DYING.……………………………………………………………140 - 156 10. Tié Emmanuel TOH BI, POÉTIQUE TRAGIQUE ET TRAGÉDIE, POUR L’ESQUISSE D’UNE POÉTIQUE DU TRAGIQUE DANS LA POÉSIE NÉGRO-AFRICAINE; UNE ILLUSTRATION DU MICROCOSME IVOIRIEN DANS LA MÈRE ROUGE DE CEDRIC MARSHALL KISSY.…………157 - 178 11. Paul KOUABENAN, THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF ART: A STUDY OF CHINUA ACHEBE’S NO LONGER AT EASE, A MAN OF THE PEOPLE AND ANTHILLS OF THE SAVANNAH.………………………………………178 - 192 12. Renais Ulrich KACOU, COLONIALISM AND RACISM IN TSITSI DANGAREMBGA’S THE BOOK OF NOT.………………………………193 - 203 13. Adiele Kilanko ZANNOU, THE AMERICAN DREAM IN LANGSTON HUGHES’ SELECTED POEMS.…………………………………………204 - 226 14. Jean Jacques Gnahoua SABLÉ, LA LITTERATURE COMME UN EXAMEN DE MEMOIRE, D’OUBLI ET DE RECONCILIATION.……………….227 - 235 15. Aliou Badara KANDJI, VIOLENCE, INCEST AND DELAYED DECODING IN THE SCOTTISH BALLAD, “EDWARD, EDWARD” (CHILD 13)...236 - 244 16. Pierre KRAMOKO, THE HOMELESS HOUSEHOLD: A REFLECTION ON THE FAMILY IN TONI MORRISON’S SULA AND SONG OF SOLOMON.…………………………………………………………………245 - 259 17. Désiré Yssa KOFFI, THE VOICE IN THE PERIPHERY: BLACK CULTURE IN TONI MORRISON’S TAR BABY.………………………260 - 272 18. Minata KONÉ, THE NGURARIO OR MARRIAGE IN FICTION AND REAL LIFE.……………………………………………………………….273 - 285 19. Daouda COULIBALY, THE DRAMATIZATION OF THE FEMALE BODY: DISCOURSES OF RESISTANCE AND POWER IN OF EVE ENSLER’S THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES.……………………………………………286 - 298 BRIDGING THE VALLEY OF NIHILISM IN AUGUST WILSON’S FENCES1 Koffi Eugène N’GUESSAN Alassane Ouattara University – Bouaké [email protected] Abstract: Drawing on Cornell West’s concept of black nihilism, this paper analyses August Wilson’s Fences, putting forward the rhetoric of black psychological annihilation and the way the author suggests an infusion of hope, breaking the metaphorical or psychological enslavement of the African American for a positive change. The change is built out of death, or metaphor of death that abounds in the play, as it is the case in most of August Wilson’s plays. Key words: metaphor, nihilism, death, hopelessness, hope, change Résumé: Partant du concept de nihilisme noir de Cornel West, cet article analyse Fences August Wilson, tout en mettant en avant la rhétorique de l'anéantissement psychologique du Noir et la façon dont l'œuvre est infuse du germe d’un changement positif. Ce changement se construit sur la base de la mort, ou ses différentes formes métaphoriques qui abondent dans l’œuvre, comme c’est le cas dans la plupart des pièces du même auteur. Mots clés: métaphore, nihilisme, la mort, le désespoir, l’espoir 1 August Wilson, Fences, New York, Samuel French, 1986. 106 Introduction August Wilson has taken upon himself the responsibility of exploring the lives of African Americans in the different decades of the twentieth century. In Fences the story takes place in the 1950s, and the image of death or death metaphor is quite predominant. Death is used to depict and analyze the reality of African Americans. It takes various forms in the play and it nourishes all the conflicts: internal conflict, conflicts between father and sons, husband and wife, whites and blacks. These conflicts evolve into contradictions springing from inertia and dynamism or the dialectics of past and present. The outcome of those conflicts is the death of Troy Maxson, the main protagonist and an ensuing change, a rebirth that projects a significant impact on black and white relations in the United-States. Actually, between Troy Maxson and the other characters of the play, there is a certain gap or rift holding from Troy’s inertia, a symbolic death. This inertia clashes with the other characters’ optimism and dynamism that constitute a driving force in their dealing with life. As for Troy, he is a living dead who carries with him regrets, bitterness and above all, pessimism from his past experience. The sedimentation of racial oppression and injustice has made him into an estranged individual without hope, completely inert and pessimistic. This mental stasis or disposition puts him at odds with the members of his family. In Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (August Wilson 1988), another play by August Wilson, there is a substantial concern with death. Death is permanent through a ghost that haunts the protagonist of the play. In Fences however, we would like to postulate that beyond physical death, death carries out other dimensions, some metaphorical representations throughout the play. Fences is infused with the idea of death, both literal and metaphorical. Literal death is the cessation of all the vital functions that are required to keep an organism alive. It is the annihilation of life, as it occurs in the play: Troy’s death or the death of Albertha. Yet, in August Wilson’s play, literal death or being dead is preceded by a symbolic death, which functions as a metaphor through which Wilson reveals the inner reality of Troy's character. Thus, "death," which is connotatively represented under different forms, provides character psychology, context and symbolic model. The image of "death" plays a great role in the play; it expresses the trauma of the African American. As Latifa Jabboury argues, "Death" is one of Wilson's tools to analyze and depict Troy's character in the play.”(“Meanings with Meanings” 14) The death imagery in the play can best be articulated with the help of Cornel 107 West’s concept of “black nihilism.” According to Cornel West, nihilism is “the lived experience of coping with a life of horrifying meaninglessness, hopelessness, and (most important) lovelessness.” And “the frightening result is,” he continues, “a numbing detachment from others and a self-destructive disposition toward the world. Life without meaning, hope, and love breeds a coldhearted, mean-spirited outlook that destroys both the individual and others.”(Cornel West 2001: 23) In the present paper, my investigation will be guided by the following question: how does the playwright simultaneously articulate African Americans’ experience through the rhetoric of death, and envision change in the play? To put it differently, how is death represented, and how is the valley of death bridged in the play? I shall be concerned with the symbolic patterns of death or black nihilism, and then examine the way the valley of nihilism is bridged in the play. 1- The Symbolic Patterns of Nihilism in Fences Although Susan Koprince argues that Troy Maxson “is pictured as a batter/warrior, fighting to earn a living and to stay alive in a world that repeatedly discriminates against him,”( “Baseball as History and Myth in August Wilson's Fences” 354) the fight in which he is engaged is of no avail since he has already reached a level of stasis. Actually, Troy Maxson’s literal death occurs at the end of the play; yet, he is dead before even the beginning. He is thus a living dead character, locked in a perception of victimization: a social loss. And the idea of death abounds the play through death rhetoric, or patterns of symbolic death which express Troy’s loss-of-self, and beyond him, black nihilism. The different modes of articulation of death start with the name of the protagonist, which is Troy. Troy is short for destroy, and it also recalls this famous title: The Trojan Battle Will Not Take Place, a play by Jean Giraudoux. According to that title, Troy is associated with battle or struggle, and more particularly, it suggests, impossibility, failure, destruction, despair.
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