Unfencing the Fence: The Wife as Mediator in August Wilson's Fences.

This paper aims at demonstrating the fact that, although the term "fences" in August Wilson's Fences is generally associated with "division" and "separation" by literary critics, "fences" in this play is equally a unifying agent-- an enclosure. The playwright depicts a wife who is very instrumental in uniting family members, thus gathering them behind the fence built by her husband. The fence here therefore fosters family cohesion. Formalism and Feminism will both shed light on the division suggested by the metaphor of the fence and the wife's ability to break these divisions and convert this fence into a unifying enclosure around the family unit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]