A Study Of Theatrical Signs In August Wilson's Radio Golf

August Wilson is acclaimed as one of the most influential contemporary African American playwrights.Radio Golf,the last play of his Pittsburgh Cycle,won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award in 2007.Due to the late emergence,this play has drawn little attention from domestic and foreign scholars,who focus mostly on the image of the protagonist Harmond Wilks.Relevant questions on the theatricalization of the characters and its aims,on the intentions underlying the depiction of characters' actions and conflicts,and on the functions of presenting the multi-theatrical space and the special theatrical discourse in the play,are waiting to be pondered systematically.In order to conduct a more in-depth research,this thesis analyzes the play from the perspective of theatre semiotics developed by French semiologist Anne Ubersfeld,which considers the dramatic text as an integrated collection of theatrical signs,focusing on the theatricalization of the characters,the actantial models,theatrical space and theatrical discourse.The research finds that Wilson relates this play to other plays through the theatricalization of the characters who either exist in previous plays or are the descendants of characters in other plays.The theatricalization of the characters makes this play form intertextuality with his other plays,unfolding the picture of the blacks' life over the course of centuries and warning the black at the turn of new and old centuries to remember their history.Based on the actantial models,the actions of characters and the conflicts in this play center around the protagonist's campaign for mayorship and the demolishment of the 1839 Wylie,the legacy from their ancestors,which reveals the writer's attitude towards the blacks' cultural heritage.Through the application of theatrical objects and spatial practice,Wilson creatively presents the multi-theatrical space in this play,which includes physical space showing the divergence between different classes,psychological space presenting the internal and external conflicts,political space satirizing the illusory racial equality and social space revealing the racial discrimination.The construction of the multi-theatrical space epitomizes the panorama of African Americans' complicated lives at the end of the twentieth century.In the meanwhile,this play presents the writer's unique theatrical discourse,consisting of the blurring of twofold enunciation,the dialogism of theatrical discourse and the prominence of temporal discourse.By means of the distinctive theatrical discourse,Wilson lays emphasis again on the significance of the historical and cultural heritage of black Americans through characters' utterances in a sophisticated and implicit way.Based on theatre semiotics,the thesis contends that Radio Golf,the concluding play of Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle,embodies his skillful playwriting to a large extent.Through the focal representation of the multiple theatrical signs,including characters,actions,space and discourse,the theme of this play is highlighted: living in the complicated American society at the end of the twentieth century,African Americans need to remember their history,cherish the cultural heritage from their ancestors and unite themselves together.Only in this way can they take root better at the crossroad of the centuries and look forward to the future.