Language as an Instrument Employed for Socio-Psycho Oppression and Its Depiction in a Raisin in the Sun by Lorrain Hansberry

Abstract

The current research is discourse analysis of Lorrain Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun (1959): a play written in the background of racial discrimination. “A Raisin in the Sun” is a social satire presenting the theme of socio-psycho oppression and discrimination inflicted on colonized people by the colonizers in Afro American settings of 1960’s Chicago. The theme of the play A Raisin in the Sun promotes class distinction among the characters of the play triggering social and psychological oppression among Afro-American Characters of the play. The power relations and segregation due to the capitalist control over ‘subaltern’ has been analyzed by the researchers through application of Critical Discourse Analysis propounded by Norman Fairclough (1949).  The researchers have borrowed theoretical insights from Carl Marx’s theory of Marxism; a theory focusing on how power structure and relations are built in society. Through the Critical Discourse Analysis of the collected text samples, the researcher has found that language has been used as a tool for exploitation of the underprivileged people presented in the selected work.