The goal of this thesis is to explore African American theatre through the lens of performativity and to show how the performative concepts of passing and entrenchment affected the writing of African American playwrights in the 1950s and 1960s. To this end, the first part of the work is focused on establishing performativity as a concept, starting with its origins in linguistics and then tracing its development. The main influences for this section are the works of Judith Butler, Nadine Ehlers, Andrew Parker and Eve Sedgewick. Butler's work on performativity is used as the main source for understanding performativity in its contemporary sense and to establish "passing" as a performative act. Ehlers' work serves to connect performativity to race and to show the use of "entrenchment" in performativity. Finally, Parker and Sedgewick's work provides a bridge between performativity and theatrical performance as they describe the "relations of spectatorship" necessary for the existence of theatre. Since performativity, in theatre or anywhere else, is based on discourse, the thesis will show the images and relations of spectatorship that defined African American theatre and performance since its inception. These include slave performance, black minstrelsy, but also the first attempts at quintessentially...

本論文期望藉由探究《陽光下的葡萄乾》一劇，對非裔美人在面對社會困境以及白人意識型態時，如何發展自我認同的議題啟發新的思考。蘿琳．漢司白瑞以寫實的寫作手法，呈現非裔美人在美國一九五○年代種族隔離區的生活。種族隔離政策(segregation laws)中，空間具有特別的指涉意義，因此本文選擇米哈依爾．巴赫汀(Mikhail Bakhtin)的「時空型」(chronotope)理論作為本論文的基本架構。由於劇本和其當代歷史相互輝映，歷史背景的研究可以幫助理解劇中人物動機；反之，由解析劇中情節和人物行為，亦可推測非裔美人的未來發展。 本論文分為四個章節。第一章提供作者生平、劇本、評論、以及理論架構的基本介紹。第二章有兩個主題：呈現作品如何反映歷史，以及從社會背景的角度詮釋角色。其中，弗朗茲．法農(Frantz Fanon)的《黑皮膚，白面具》幫助解釋部分角色的同化行為。第三章顯示非裔美人如何在白人霸權之下建立自我認同：在社會上表達訴求以對抗白人霸權，在文化上接納非洲本能和美洲文化，及在家庭方面堅守傳承下來的家庭尊嚴。史都華．霍爾( Stuart Hall)的離散理論(diaspora)特別用來處理其中同時具有非洲和美洲本質的文化議題。第四章則是本論文的結論，總結作者寫本劇的信念和目的。 / This thesis studies A Raisin in the Sun and expects to bring new inspirations of how African Americans develop their own identities confronting social plights and white ideology. With the realistic writing style, Lorraine Hansberry truthfully depicts and reflects African Americans’ life in the segregated ghetto in the 1950s. As space carries significant meanings in the enforced segregation laws, Mikhail Bakhtin’s chronotope serves as the main theoretical framework of this thesis. The play is interconnected with its contemporary history, so we may interpret the characters by considering their historical background and infer the American blacks’ future path by scrutinizing the plot and actions in the play. This thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter One is an introduction to the author’s life, the play, the critical opinions, and the theoretical framework. In Chapter Two, there are two main issues: first, how this play reflects the historical background, and second, interpretation of characters in relation to their specific social contexts. Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks is applied to explain the potential of assimilation of some characters. Chapter Three reveals how African Americans under the white hegemony find their own identities in social, cultural, and family perspectives. The gist is that they must strive for the improvement of their social status, embrace both African and American cultural roots, and stick to their family pride. Stuart Hall’s theory on diaspora is useful to deal with the cultural identity which ambiguously covers both African and American essences. Chapter Four is the conclusion of the thesis that sums up the author’s belief and intention in writing the play.

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