The Space Study In A Raisin In The Sun

Lorraine Hansberry(1930-1965)was the most influential and famous black female playwright in America in the middle of the 20 th century.She was the pioneer of the American civil and women’s rights movement,as well as the forerunner of the struggle for the vindication of lesbians in American society.As a black woman who lived in the white mainstream world of the United States,Hansberry could personally experience the discrimination and persecution suffered by African-Americans in the white society.At the same time,she encouraged African-Americans to fight for their dreams,freedom,and equality.Hansberry was the youngest black female playwright to put the life of African-Americans on Broadway.Furthermore,she was also the first to win the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award as a black female playwright.In a word,she had made an essential contribution to the development of American drama.A Raisin in the Sun was Lorraine Hansberry’s first and most famous play,which was an accurate portrayal of the African-American family’s plight living on Chicago’s south side.At present,the research on A Raisin in the Sun at home and abroad mainly focuses on the American Dream,black women,racial politics,and works’ comparison.Based on Edward Soja’s space theory,this thesis makes an in-depth analysis of how the author makes use of the combination of space and African-American’s social life to communicate with readers in A Raisin in the Sun.Soja’s space theory focuses on three spaces,of which the thirdspace,as an infinitely open space,provides a new perspective for literary research.This thesis centers on the three spaces to analyze African-Americans’ material and spiritual dilemmas.It also attempts to clarify how Hansberry combines the space in the work with social life? And it depicts the resistance of those characters when they met social unfair treatment? Finally,it explores the possibility of spatial analysis for African-Americans to find their own value,enabling readers to make correct spatial judgments.This thesis consists of five parts.Chapter one briefly introduces Hansberry’s life and creation,the creative background,and the content of A Raisin in the Sun.Besides,it reviews the domestic and overseas research status of A Raisin in the Sun from seven aspects.And it depicts the research questions,research structure and significance of the thesis.Chapter two provides the theoretical framework,Soja’s space theory.The study of space is the essential domain research of modern literary works.This chapter primarily elaborates the connotation and its dialectical relationship of Soja’s space theory and its background and development.Simultaneously,it discusses the necessity of using Soja’s space theory to interpret A Raisin in the Sun.Chapter three mainly introduces the firstspace and secondspace in the play.And the two of them opposed or unified.This chapter first analyzes the Younger’s firstspace to expound on African Americans’ challenging living environment by their wearing residential space,chaotic sharing space,and unfair working space of the Younger’s family.Because one’s spiritual space is closely tied with his life experiences.At the same time,this chapter continues to explore the secondspace in Younger family,including the spiritual space and psychological space,which shows the influence of space on the characters’ psychology.It also proves that the firstspace and the secondspace are inseparable.The two of them depend on each other and promote each other.Chapter four primarily discusses the thirdspace in A Raisin in the Sun.It probes into the conflicts and disputes among the characters in the play by analyzing its gender,race,class space.Next it depicts the Younger family’s changes in the play to study that whether African-Americans can find their self-value in this thirdspace.Under the gender space,this chapter analyzes male’s oppression of females and the rebellious character Beneatha in the patriarchal society.Simultaneously,according to the housing segregation,job discrimination and other unfair treatments between the black and white community,the effect of space on people’s life is shown by its racial and class space illustration.Besides,the Younger family’s changes are depicted in the infinitely inclusive thirdspace.It also points out that the inevitability of people with dual identities finding their self-value in the thirdspace.Chapter five is the conclusion part,which summarizes the full text.Hansberry describes the living dilemma of African-Americans by expounds the frictions and contradictions of the Youngers in different spaces.Since racial and class problems still exists,the only way for African-Americans to get out of this lifelong dilemma is to pursuit their self-value in space,so that they can free from the influence of the outside world.In the meantime,this thesis points out the contemporary significance of space study.Such dilemma faced by the Youngers is not only for African-Americans in the multi-ethnic countries.Space oppressions and other problems in such countries has become a common symptom of post-modern society.Finally,the findings and limitations of this study are puts forward.Different from the previous research perspective,this thesis uses Edward Soja’s space theory to elaborate on Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun in order to explore Hansberry’s spatial consciousness and provide new possibilities for the study of the work.