STAGING "THE ETHNIC FAMIILY" IN AUGUST WILSON'S FENCES (1983) AND PHILIP KAN GOTANDA'S THE WASH (1985)

The main aim of this paper is to study the concept of "ethnic family" in both August Wilson's Fences (1983) and Philip Kan Gotanda's The Wash (1985). The idea of the family has a deep and complex association with ethnic identity. In this paper, two plays by August Wilson and Philip Kan Gotanda serve as the focal points for re-thinking the family in ethnic drama. Both plays date from the mid-80s, a period which highlights debates about family values in contemporary society. The use of family themes in these plays is complex. On the one hand, both plays feature an emphasis on the ethnic family as a unit of cultural identity. At the same time, though, both Wilson and Gotanda use themes of the family to "cross over" from ethnic-specific audiences to more mainstream venues.  For the two playwrights discussed in this paper, the family serves as a political tool and not just an arena for their "realism." As the  themes and production of Fences and The Wash suggest, the  ideology of the family serves a complex double  function: on the one hand,  the  family serves as an extremely powerful way of mobilizing ethnic solidarity, while it also addresses a broad audience  through the idea  that as human beings we are all part of the same family. The family, then, manages to deflect issues of race and gender, even as it is deeply imbedded in them. The two playwrights discussed suggest how family dramas articulate a double-edged process:  on the one hand domesticating issues of racial conflict, and on the other hand transforming ethnic-specific discourses into national or "American" ones.