“But I Hope You’re Not Offended”: A Look at Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park Through the Structural Perspective of Critical Race Theory

Authors

Nora M. Yawitz, The College of WoosterFollow

Abstract

This Independent Study explores how the structural perspective of Critical Race Theory can be applied to Bruce Norris’ award-winning 2010 play, Clybourne Park. Clybourne Park takes place in both 1959 and 2009, in the house the Younger family from A Raisin in the Sun eventually moves into, in the fictional Chicago neighborhood of Clybourne Park. This I.S. looks at what individual, institutional, and societal subordinating filters appear in both Clybourne Park and the play that inspired it, Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 A Raisin in the Sun. By looking at the subordinating filters working in Clybourne Park, it is possible to see how racism and subordination throughout the 20^th century and into the beginning of the 21^st century in the United States has both changed and remained the same, and whether it is possible for the target audience of Clybourne Park to change its perspective and actions in the context of racism and subordination.

Advisor

Huston-Findley, Shirley

Department

Theatre and Dance

Recommended Citation

Yawitz, Nora M., "“But I Hope You’re Not Offended”: A Look at Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park Through the Structural Perspective of Critical Race Theory" (2015). Senior Independent Study Theses. Paper 6521.
https://openworks.wooster.edu/independentstudy/6521

Disciplines

African American Studies | Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies | Theatre History

Keywords

A Raisin the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry, Bruce Norris, Clybourne Park, Critical Race Theory

Publication Date

2015

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis