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Literary and Dramatic Criticism

Literary and Dramatic Criticism

Anderson, Michael L. "Black Matriarchy: Portrayals of Women in Three Plays." Negro American Literature Forum Vol. 10 No. 3 (1976): 93–95. 

Baraka, Amiri “A Critical Reevaluation: A Raisin in the Sun’s Enduring Passion.” In A Raisin in the Sun and The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, edited by Robert Nemiroff. With a new Foreword by Jewell Handy Gresham-Nemiroff, a Note by Robert Nemiroff, and critical Essays by Amiri Baraka and Frank Rich. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

Bernstein, Robin. “Inventing a Fishbowl: White Supremacy and the Critical Reception of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun.” Modern Drama Vol. 42 No. 1 (1999): 16–27.

Bower, Martha G. Color Struck under the Gaze: Ethnicity and the Pathology of Being in the Plays of Johnson, Hurston, Childress, Hansberry, and Kennedy. CT: Praeger, 2003.

Brown, Lloyd W. “Lorraine Hansberry as Ironist: A Reappraisal of A Raisin in the Sun.” Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 4 No. 3 (1974): 237–247.

Carter, Steven R. Hansberry’s Drama: Commitment and Complexity. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991. 

Domina, Lynn. Understanding A Raisin in the Sun: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.

Fisher, Jerilyn and Ellen S. Silber, eds. Women in Literature: Reading through the Lens of Gender. CT: Greenwood Press, 2003.

Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Grubar, eds. The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Tradition in English. NY: W.W. Norton and Company, 1985.

Gold, Rachelle S. “‘Education Has Spoiled Many a Good Plow Hand’”: How Beneatha’s Knowledge Functions in A Raisin in the Sun.” In Reading Contemporary African American Drama: Fragments of History, Fragments of Self, edited by Trudier Harris and Jennifer Larson. NY: Peter Lang, 2007.

Gresham-Nemiroff, Jewell Handy. “Foreword to the Vintage Edition.” In A Raisin in the Sun and The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, edited by Robert Nemiroff. With a new Foreword by Jewell Handy Gresham-Nemiroff, a Note by Robert Nemiroff, and critical Essays by Amiri Baraka and Frank Rich. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

Hannah, John M. “Signifying Raisin: Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and Wilson’s Fences.” In Reading Contemporary African American Drama: Fragments of History, Fragments of Self, edited by Trudier Harris and Jennifer Larson. NY: Peter Lang, 2007.

Harris, Trudier. “This Disease Called Strength: Some Observations on the Compensating Construction of Black Female Character.Literature and Medicine Vol. 14 No. 1 (1995): 109–126. 

hooks, bell. "Raisin in a New Light." Christianity and Crisis 49 No. 1 (February 1989): 21-3.

Jenckes, Norma, ed. New Readings in American Drama: Something’s Happening Here. NY: Peter Lang, 2002.

Lund, Charles. “Teaching A Raisin in the Sun: Literature and Life.” College Teaching, Vol. 37 No. 3 (1989): 83–85.

Matthews, Kristin L. “The Politics of “Home” in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun.” Modern Drama, Vol. 51 No. 4 (2008): 656–578.

Nemiroff, Robert and Charlotte Zaltzberg. Raisin. Based on Lorrain Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. Music by Judd Woldin. Lyrics by Robert Brittan. Acting Edition. New York: Samuel French, Inc., 1978.

Nemiroff, Robert and Ernest Kaiser. “A Lorraine Hansberry Bibliography.” Freedomways 19 (1979).

Nemiroff, Robert. “A Note about this Edition.” In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. Thirtieth Anniversary Edition (Revised). Acting Edition. New York: Samuel French, Inc., 1988.

Nemiroff, Robert. “A Note about this Revised Edition.” In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. Thirtieth Anniversary Edition (Revised) by Lorraine Hansberry. Acting Edition. New York: Samuel French, Inc., 1988.

Nemiroff, Robert. “A Note about this Revised Edition.” The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window: A Drama in Two Acts, Revised Stage Edition by Lorraine Hansberry. Acting Edition. New York: Samuel French, Inc., 1993.

Nemiroff, Robert. “A Note on this Edition.” In To Be Young Gifted and Black: A Portrait of Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words by Lorraine Hansberry and adapted by Robert Nemiroff. Acting Edition. New York: Samuel French, Inc., 1999.

Nemiroff, Robert. “A Critical Background.” In Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays. Includes The Drinking Gourd and What Use are Flowers? by Lorraine Hansberry. Edited, with critical background by Robert Nemiroff. With a Foreword by Jewell Handy Gresham Nemiroff and an Introduction by Margaret B. Wilkerson. Edition. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.

Nemiroff, Robert. “Foreword.” In To Be Young Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words by Lorraine Hansberry and adapted by Robert Nemiroff. With drawings and art by Lorraine Hansberry, an Introduction by James Baldwin, and a new Preface by Jewell Handy Gresham Nemiroff. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

Nemiroff, Robert. “Notes on this New Edition.” In A Raisin in the Sun and The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, edited by Robert Nemiroff. With a new Foreword by Jewell Handy Gresham-Nemiroff, a Note by Robert Nemiroff, and critical Essays by Amiri Baraka and Frank Rich. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

Nemiroff, Robert. “Postscript.” In Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays. Includes The Drinking Gourd and What Use are Flowers? by Lorraine Hansberry. Edited, with critical background by Robert Nemiroff. With an Introduction by Julius Lester. First edition. New York: Random House, 1972.

Nemiroff, Robert. “Production Notes.” In Les Blancs: A Drama in Two Acts by Lorraine Hansberry. Final text adapted by Robert Nemiroff; script associate, Charlotte Zaltzberg. Acting Edition. New York: Samuel French, Inc., 1972.

Nemiroff, Robert. “The 101 Final Performances.” Introduction to The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window by Lorraine Hansberry. With a Foreword by John Braine. New York: Random House, 1965.

Rich, Frank. “An Appreciation: A Raisin in the Sun, the 25th Anniversary.” In A Raisin in the Sun and The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, edited by Robert Nemiroff. With a new Foreword by Jewell Handy Gresham-Nemiroff, a Note by Robert Nemiroff, and critical Essays by Amiri Baraka and Frank Rich. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

Parks, Sheri. “In My Mother’s House: Black Feminist Aesthetics, Television, and A Raisin in the Sun.” In Black Feminist Cultural Criticism. US: Wiley-Blackwell, 2001.

Parks, Sheri. “In My Mother’s House: Traditional Black Feminism in the PBS production of A Raisin in the Sun.” Theatre and Feminist Aesthetic, edited by Karen Louise Laughlin and Catherine Schuler. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson Press: 1995.

Phillips, Elizabeth C. The Works of Lorraine Hansberry: A Critical Commentary. NY: Monarch Press, 1973.

Rich, Frank. “An Appreciation: A Raisin in the Sun, the 25th Anniversary.” In A Raisin in the Sun and The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, edited by Robert Nemiroff. With a new Foreword by Jewell Handy Gresham-Nemiroff, a Note by Robert Nemiroff, and critical Essays by Amiri Baraka and Frank Rich. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

Sharadha, Y. S. Black Women’s Writing: Quest for Identity in the Plays of Lorraine Hansberry and Ntozake Shange. Delhi: Sangam Books, Ltd., 1998. 

Warrick, John. “The Blacks and Its Impact on African American Theater in the United States.” In Jean Genet: Performance and Politics, edited by Claire Finburgh, Carl Lavery, and Maria Shevtsova, 131–141. NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Washington, Mary Helen. “Alice Childress, Lorraine Hansberry, and Claudia Jones: Black Women Write the Popular Front.” In Left of the Color Line: Race, Radicalism, and Twentieth-Century Literature of the United States, edited by Bill V. Mullen and James Smethurst, 183–204. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.

Wilkerson, Margaret B. “Political Radicalism and Artistic Innovation in the Works of Lorraine Hansberry.” In African American Performance and Theater History: A Critical Reader, edited by Harry Elam Jr. and David Krasner, 40–55. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Wilkerson, Margaret B. “The Dark Vision of Lorraine Hansberry: Excerpts from a Literary Biography.” The Massachusetts Review Vol. 28, No. 4 (Winter 1987): 642–650.

Wilkerson, Margaret B. “The Sighted Eyes and Feeling Heart of Lorraine Hansberry.” Black American Literature Forum Vol. 17 No. 1 (1983): 8–13.

Wilkerson, Margaret B. “A Raisin in the Sun: Anniversary of an American Classic.” Theatre Journal Vol. 38 No. 4 (1986): 441–452.

Wilkerson, Margaret B., ed. Nine Plays By Black Women. NY: New American Library, 1986.


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