McGill Reads: "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry
If you miss the insightful discussions of the classroom or just
love to read, this is your chance to discover thought-provoking
books and meet new people while learning from some of McGill’s
favourite professors without tests, papers, or evaluations!
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
Presented by Sean Carney, Associate Professor of Drama and Theatre,
Department of English, McGill University
In this classic play that confronts deep-seated issues of race,
dignity, and self-determination, Walter Lee, a black chauffeur on
Chicago’s South Side, dreams of a better life and hopes to use
money from his father's life insurance settlement to open a liquor
store. His mother, who rejects the liquor business, wants to use
the money to buy a proper house for the family. Even as they are at
odds with one another over their dreams and visions for the future,
the family must also endure conflicts with the world around
them.
Deeply committed to the black struggle for equality and human
rights, Lorraine Hansberry would have had a long and brilliant
career as a writer had her life not been cut short by cancer at the
age of 35. A Raisin in the Sun, the first play by a black
woman to be produced on Broadway, won the New York Drama Critics
Circle Award. Hansberry was the youngest writer - and the first
black writer - to receive the award.
Sean Carney is an Associate Professor of Drama and Theatre in
McGill’s Department of English. He is the author of "Brecht and
Critical Theory: Dialectics and Contemporary Aesthetics" and has
published essays in "Modern Drama", "Theatre Journal", the "Journal
of Dramatic Theory and Criticism", "Theatre Survey", "Essays in
Theatre", "ImageTexT", the "Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies and
English Language Notes". He has directed students in three plays at
McGill: Orra by Joanna Baillie, Twelfth Night by
William Shakespeare and Playhouse Creatures by April De
Angelis. He is currently writing a book about contemporary British
theatre.
Cost: $15 CDN (includes 3 lectures; 10% off these books at McGill bookstore)