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A Raisin in the Sun a play by Lorraine Hansberry
A Raisin in the Sun
a play by Lorraine Hansberry
But First… Some General Notes on Drama Understanding Elements and Terminology
Elements of Drama The elements of drama, by which dramatic works can be analyzed and evaluated, can be categorized into three major areas: literary elements, technical elements, and performance elements.
1) Literary elements
2) Technical elements
3) Performance elements
Literary Elements
These include: Character Conflict Theme Language Style All elements of the plot, etc.
Technical Elements
Includes: Scenery Costumes Props Lighting, Sound Makeup Etc.
Performance Elements Includes:
Acting, Character motivation Character analysis Empathy Speaking Nonverbal expression
Speaking: the mode of expression or delivery of lines
How to Read a Play Visualize the characters Contemplate the setting Research the historical context Sit in the director’s chair!
Visualize the Characters Unlike fiction, a play does not usually offer a lot of vivid
detail. Typically, a playwright will briefly describe a character as
he or she enters the stage. After that point, the characters might never be described again.
Therefore, it is up to the reader to create a lasting mental image. What does this person look like? How do they sound? How do they deliver each line?
Your characterization comes from the stage notes (passionately and suddenly) rather than from context clues… remember that what you have here is DIALOGUE!
Contemplate the Setting Because many classic dramas are set in a wide range
of different eras, it will behoove you to have a clear understanding of the story’s time and place.
For one, readers should try to imagine the sets and costumes as they read. You should consider whether or not the historical context is important to the story.
Sometimes the setting of a play seems like a flexible backdrop. In other cases, the setting of the play is vitally important.
Research the Historical Context If the time and place is an essential component,
students should learn more about the historic details. Some plays can only be understood when the context is evaluated. Without knowledge of the historical context, much of the story’s significance could be lost.
With a little bit of research into the past, students can generate a new level of appreciation for the play they are studying.
Sit in the Director’s Chair Here comes the truly fun part. To visualize the play, you
should think like a director. Some playwrights provide a great deal of specific
movement. It begs the question: What are those characters doing?
You should imagine the different possibilities. Does the protagonist rant and rave? Or does she remain eerily calm, delivering the lines with an icy gaze? The reader makes those interpretive choices.
So, get comfortable in that director’s chair. Remember, to appreciate the dramatic literature, you must imagine the cast, the set, and the movements. That is what makes reading dramatic literature a challenging yet invigorating experience.
Back to… A Raisin in the Sun
a play by Lorraine Hansberry
Acclaim for Raisin
A Raisin in the Sun garnered much acclaim and commotion when it opened at the Barrymore Theater in New York in 1959.
First play written by a black woman to ever to be produced on Broadway
Won the New York Drama Critics Circle award for Best Play of the
Year
DVD Cover for the 1961 Film Adaptation
The Set of the Play
The Title The title of the play
was inspired by Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem”, which was first published in 1951 in a collection of Hughes's poetry, Montage of a Dream Deferred.
“Harlem” by Langston Hughes What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over— like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
“Harlem” by Langston Hughes “Harlem” Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSHn98y0YC4&feature=related
Lorainne Hansberry
Her family moved into an all-white neighborhood, where they faced racial discrimination.
She attended a predominantly white public school while her parents fought against segregation. Her father engaged in a legal battle against a racially restrictive covenant that attempted to prohibit African American families from buying homes in the area.
The legal struggle over their move led to the landmark Supreme Court case, Hansberry v. Lee (311 U.S. 32, 1940)
More on Hansberry Though victorious in the Supreme
Court, Hansberry's family was subjected to what she would later ironically describe as a "warm and cuddly white neighborhood". This experience later inspired her to write her most famous work, A Raisin in the Sun.
Her family home at 6140 S. Rhodes Ave. has since been designated a City of Chicago landmark.
From Lorainne Hansberry’s “To be Young, Gifted, and Black”
"25 years ago, my father spent a small personal fortune, his considerable talents, and many years of his life fighting, in association with NAACP attorneys, Chicago’s ‘restrictive covenants’ in one of this nation's ugliest ghettos. That fight also required our family to occupy disputed property in a hellishly hostile ‘white neighborhood’ in which literally howling mobs surrounded our house. My memories of this ‘correct’ way of fighting white supremacy in America include being spat at, cursed and pummeled in the daily trek to and from school. And I also remember my desperate and courageous mother, patrolling our household all night with a loaded German Luger (pistol), doggedly guarding her four children, while my father fought the respectable part of the battle in the Washington court."
Elements of ARITS
Uses black vernacular throughout the play (nonstandard language - normal spoken form of language - often relating to a specific place, region, or country)
Talks about important issues and conflicts, such as poverty, discrimination, and the construction of African-American racial identity.
Explores the tension between white and black society and the strain within the black community over how to react to an oppressive white community
Feminism in the play Hansberry addressed
feminist questions ahead of her time.
Through the character of Beneatha, Hansberry proposes that marriage is not necessary for women and that women can and should have ambitious career goals.
The play also approaches an abortion debate (abortion was illegal at this time).
Historical Context
The play is considered a turning point in American lit. because it brings to light many important American issues of the 1950s.
1950s = often mocked today because of the images of complacency and conformism, as symbolized by the growth of suburbs and commercial culture. (Leave it to Beaver)
However, this view is superficial at best.
Historical Context
Major 1950’s American Stereotypes: happy housewives, African American’s content with their inferior status.
This led to social resentment that was realized in the civil rights and feminist movements of the 1960s.
Historical Context
Historical Context Published in 1959, four
years after Rosa Parks’ was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white person on a bus, sparking the Civil Rights Movement, Hansberry’s play illustrates black America’s struggle to gain equal access to opportunity and expression of cultural identity.
Historical Context Sentiments in A Raisin…
will be echoed by MLK in later speeches, marches, and rallies
“I have a dream… a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil-Rights Leader
1929-1968
Historical Context In 1954, the Supreme
Court found in favor of the plaintiffs in the Brown v. The Board of Education case. However, the segregation of schools didn’t begin to take effect until 1957. Moreover, the case’s decision did not abolish segregation in other public areas, such as restaurants and restrooms.
The Civil Rights Movement The Civil Rights Movement Tribute
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4AzYmy4_mw
