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Journals / Uluslararası Dil Edebiyat ve Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi / 2025 / Cilt: 8 Sayı: 4

STAGES OF HEALING: RECLAIMING COLLECTIVE MEMORY IN AUGUST WILSON’S THE PIANO LESSON AND WITI IHIMAERA’S WOMAN FAR WALKING

İYİLEŞMENIN SAHNESİ: AUGUST WILSON’UN THE PIANO LESSON VE WITI IHIMAERA’NIN WOMAN FAR WALKING OYUNLARINDA TOPLUMSAL BELLEĞİN YENİDEN KAZANIMI

Meltem Can(MANİSA CELÂL BAYAR ÜNİVERSİTESİ, YABANCI DİLLER YÜKSEKOKULU)0000-0002-8561-804X
Pages
1939–1951
Publication Date
2025-12-31
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AI Summary & Key Takeaways

AI Insight
⚡ TL;DR(Too Long; Didn't Read)

Both plays conclude with hope, picturing a future rooted in memory, resilience, and the preservation of heritage, and thus contend that reclaiming the past is not merely an act of mourning but a vital means of shaping a liberated and self-determined future.

📌 3 Key Takeaways

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Objective & Hypothesis:This paper examines how August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson and Witi Ihimaera’s Woman Far Walking turn theatre into a medium of remembrance and healing for communities marked by slavery and colonialism.
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Key Findings & Data:Both playwrights portray the lasting effects of historical oppression on African American and Maori identities, depicting their characters’ struggles to confront the inherited trauma and reclaim cultural belonging.
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Conclusion & Impact:Both plays conclude with hope, picturing a future rooted in memory, resilience, and the preservation of heritage, and thus contend that reclaiming the past is not merely an act of mourning but a vital means of shaping a liberated and self-determined future.
🔬Design:Araştırma Makalesi
📍Scope:Comprehensive Sample
⚙️Variables:kültürel travma · toplumsal bellek · tiyatro

Abstract

This paper examines how August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson and Witi Ihimaera’s Woman Far Walking turn theatre into a medium of remembrance and healing for communities marked by slavery and colonialism. Both playwrights portray the lasting effects of historical oppression on African American and Maori identities, depicting their characters’ struggles to confront the inherited trauma and reclaim cultural belonging. Through Bernice, Boy Willie, and Tiri/Tilly, the plays represent a journey from silence and repression toward recognition and recovery while suggesting that true healing requires confronting the past. Drawing on trauma theory, this study argues that both works achieve cultural catharsis by allowing individual and collective pain to be articulated, witnessed, and transformed. Theatre becomes a ritual space where suppressed histories are revisited and reimagined, enabling the restoration of communal solidarity. By dramatising recollection and resistance, Wilson and Ihimaera illuminate that facing the traumas of slavery and colonisation is essential for empowerment and the regeneration of cultural identity. Both plays conclude with hope, picturing a future rooted in memory, resilience, and the preservation of heritage, and thus contend that reclaiming the past is not merely an act of mourning but a vital means of shaping a liberated and self-determined future.

Özet

Bu makale, August Wilson'ın The Piano Lesson ve Witi Ihimaera'nın Woman Far Walking adlı eserlerinin, kölelik ve sömürgeciliğin izlerini taşıyan toplumlar için tiyatroyu nasıl bir anma ve iyileşme aracına dönüştürdüğünü incelemektedir. Her iki oyun yazarı da, tarihsel baskıların, Afro-Amerikan ve Maori kimlikleri üzerinde bıraktığı kalıcı etkilerini tasvir ederek karakterlerinin miras aldıkları travmalarıyla yüzleşme ve kültürel aidiyetlerini geri kazanma çabalarını anlatmaktadır. Bernice, Boy Willie ve Tiri/Tilly karakterleri aracılığıyla oyunlar, sessizlik ve baskıdan tanınma ve iyileşmeye uzanan bir yolculuğu temsil ederken, gerçek iyileşmenin geçmişle yüzleşmeyi gerektirdiğini öne sürmektedir. Travma kuramından yola çıkan bu çalışma, her iki eserin de bireysel ve kolektif acıların dile getirilmesinİ, tanık olunmasınI ve dönüştürülmesini mümkün kılarak, kültürel bir katarsis sağladığını ileri sürmektedir. Tiyatro, bastırılmış tarihlerin yeniden ele alındığı ve tasavvur edildiği, toplumsal dayanışmanın yeniden kurulmasını sağlayan bir ritüel alan haline gelmektedir. Wilson ve Ihimaera, hatırlama eylemini ve direnişi sahneye uyarlayarak, kölelik ve sömürgeleştirilmenin travmalarıyla yüzleşmenin, kültürel kimliğin güçlendirilmesi ve yeniden canlandırılması için gerekli olduğunu ortaya koymaktadır. Her iki oyun da umutla sona ermekte, belleğe, dayanıklılığa ve mirasın korunmasına dayanan bir gelecek resmetmekte ve böylece, geçmişi geri kazanmanın sadece bir yas tutma eylemi değil, özgür ve kendi kaderini belirleyen bir gelecek şekillendirmek için hayati bir araç olduğunu savunmaktadır.

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Cite This Article

Can, M. (2025). STAGES OF HEALING: RECLAIMING COLLECTIVE MEMORY IN AUGUST WILSON’S THE PIANO LESSON AND WITI IHIMAERA’S WOMAN FAR WALKING. Uluslararası Dil Edebiyat ve Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi, Cilt: 8 Sayı: 4, 1939–1951. https://doi.org/10.37999/udekad.1800561

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