User:Nicoleas92/The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window/litreview

Summary
This particular piece (from what I can gather) discusses Hansberry's "New Frontier," or her political agenda in her writing. It describes Hansberry's life as a political activist, and how her works played (and did not) into that. It examines the success of A Raisin in the Sun and the critical failure of A Sign in...

Evaluation
Though I only had access to a few pages of this article, I can already see that it is going to be a vital source in constructing the Wikipedia page. It's well cited, and from a reputable author. Furthermore, its analysis seems relevant for a "Critical Views" section, as it portrays Sign in... in the context of Hansberry's success with A Raisin in the Sun and the political climate of the '60s. Its strength comes from the fact that it gives much focus to Sign in..., as opposed to Hansberry or her other works. It does not, however, provide an analysis of the work itself, so items such as theme, allegory, symbolism, etc. will need to be found in another work.

Citation
Keppel, Ben. "Looking Through Sidney Brustein's Window: Lorraine Hansberry's New Frontier, 1959-1965." Racially Writing the Republic: Racists, Race Rebels, and Transformations of American Identity. By Bruce Baum and Duchess Harris. Durham: Duke UP, 2009. 247-62. Print.

Summary
Articles from The New York Times are going to be varied, but will primarily focus on the performance of Sign in... as opposed to academic writings which focus on the widespread implications of the work.

Evaluation
LSU has microfilm archives of The New York Times. Listed in the Citation section are a few articles that should prove useful. However, I cannot make it to Middleton today, so if another group member wants to go access them and report back here that would be great. l

Citation
"Lorraine Hansberry Play to Have Winter Debut; 'Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window' Scheduled." 2 Aug 1963. Microform 27. Middleton Library.

"MORT SAHL TO STAR IN BROADWAY PLAY." 24 Feb 1964. Microform 27. Middleton Library.

"Hansberry Drama Drops Sahl After He Misses Rehearsals." 16 Sep 1964. Microform 27. Middleton Library.

"Gabriel Dell Will Replace Sahl in 'Brustein's Window'." 18 Sep 1964. Microform 27. Middleton Library.

"Hansberry Opening Deferred." 7 Oct 1964. Microform 27. Middleton Library.

"Theater: 'Sidney Brustein's Window'; Lorraine Hansberry's Play at Longacre." 16 Oct 1964. Microform 27. Middleton Library.

"Lorraine Hansberry Ill, Placed on Critical List." 21 Oct 1964. Microform 27. Middleton Library.

"Hansberry Play May Close." 26 Oct 1964. Microform 27. Middleton Library.

"REVISIONS ARE MADE IN 'SIDNEY BRUSTEIN'." 28 Oct 1964. Microform 27. Middleton Library.

"Appeal at Hansberry Play Nets $5,000 at Matinee." 30 Nov 1964. Microform 27. Middleton Library.

Meeting Wikipedia's Notability Guidelines
Wikipedia Community Guidelines state that "[i]f a topic has received significant coverage in reliable secondary sources that are independent of the subject, it is presumed to satisfy the inclusion criteria for a stand-alone article or stand-alone list." After several hours of searching, I am not sure that this work meets this guideline as there does not seem to be "significant coverage" of the work.

Nicole Sergent
This article refers to The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window several times addressing theme, relevance to society, and commenting on structure. While the focus of the piece itself is Lorraine Hansberry, her life, and her career, this piece also analyzes her works. It describes the connectivity of her plays to her other works and the impact of these works on her world. This thesis also explores the style and structure of Hansberry’s pieces including The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. This source seems like it might be worth utilizing because of the limited amount of research published on this play.

The strengths of this article appear evident because not only is it a thesis, it one with a broad scope. Because this article doesn’t just focus on The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, we could draw background information from it. It also holds information about the author and framework of the play which seems very relevant when creating a Wikipedia page. Because this paper is a thesis, it had to be reviewed by academic types before being published so it seems as if it would be a reliable source for that reason.

The weaknesses of this thesis are predominantly the date this piece was written and its length. Because it was written in the 80’s some of the paper’s analysis could be dated or could have been reevaluated at this point. The other complication of utilizing this source is its length. It’s a full thesis, but through the LSU database students only have access to a large chunk of the paper. If our group were to find a way to access the entire article without having to pay, it would become more useful to us.

Works Cited

Wood, Deborah Jean. "The Plays of Lorraine Hansberry: Studies in Dramatic Form." The University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1985. United States -- Wisconsin: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I. Web. 14 Feb. 2012.

Marylee
Carter, Steven. “Hansberry’s Drama.” 1991, Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois Press. Urbana and Champagne.

In the book, Carter goes over many elements of “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window.” He explores Sidney’s character as the link or “center” that all characters are attracted to. Sidney’s Jewish culture is analyzed. Carter argues that Hansberry made Sidney Jewish because oppressed people can identify with Jewish people. Furthermore, he goes on to explain how the protagonist (Sidney) has flaws. Carter says Sidney has prejudices, which affect his decision. Finally, Carter goes on to address how Gloria’s suicide affects Sidney’s view on his prejudice against women and apathy for things like drugs.

This book would be really helpful to examine the connections between characters in the play. It really explains how each character is linked to Sidney. Since Sidney is the main character—as Carter points out, Sidney never leaves the stage—he affects the other characters immensely. The book also explains Sidney as an ethnic person.

I think Carter spent too much time focusing on Sidney’s Judaism. It seemed like he drew that out for a while. However, the book would be helpful when seeing how Sidney, as the protagonist, has many flaws/prejudices. This will be an invaluable source because it looks at how Sidney’s prejudices morph and change with his journey.

Carter, Steven. “Commitment amid Complexity: Lorraine Hansberry's Life in Action.” MELUS, Vol. 7, No. 3, Ethnic Women Writers      I (Autumn, 1980), pp. 39-53

This article traces Hansberry’s life and how important points in her life connected to her ideas. This article covers Hansberry’s political and social concerns, and how those concerns tie in with her plays (including The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window). Carter also discusses the absurdist theatre some more.'''

While this article doesn’t have any really original criticisms or ideas about “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window.” It does give a detailed chronicle of Hansberry’s life. This will be important to the project because we should give a description of who Lorraine Hansberry was and how her life affected her works. This article doesn’t really talk about “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window.” Generally, it is about Hansberry’s life.

Hodin, Mark. “Lorraine Hansberry's Absurdity: The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window.” Contemporary Literature 50. 2009 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System

Hodin’s article really takes the time to explain the existentialism and art behind “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. The article goes into detail about gender oppression and gender roles in the production. However, gender oppression isn’t seen through politics. Carter looks at the history of the Theatre of the Absurds and how Sidney Brustein fits in with that genre. It also looks at the role that Alton Scales plays as the only African American character in the play. He goes over major points in the play, like Mavis admitting that her middle-class lifestyle isn’t what everyone thought it was. Also, Hodin describes, in detail, the production of the play and how audiences received it.

This article will provide our project with how the production of “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” was produced. It also gives us a good explanation of Mavis. There wasn’t much of an overarching theme to this article. It covered a lot of points, which is good when working on a project, but it doesn’t help with the organization of an article.

The other articles don’t spend as much time on gender opposition. Carter’s book touches on the subject, but it spends more time talking about Sidney’s Jewish characteristics. None of the other sources talk about the absurdist theatre, like David Ragin’s refrigerator play. It really looks at how David’s play parallels “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window.”

Wilkerson, Margaret. “The Sighted Eyes and Feeling Heart of Lorraine Hansberry.” Black American Literature Forum, Vol. 17, No. 1, Black Theatre Issue (Spring, 1983), pp. 8-13. St. Louis University.

In the whole article, Wilkerson compares Hansberry’s plays and discusses how the success of “A Raisin in the Sun,” (her first play) overshadowed the value of her other productions. Wilkerson evaluates “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” on page 12. In this evaluation, Wilkerson says that critics didn’t appreciate “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” because it didn’t focus on African Americans, like “Raisin in the Sun,” and it criticized the unconcern of modern intellectuals. Wilkerson also claims that the characters are the main focus in this production, rather than the plot. She said, Sidney Brustein’s character is the main focus in the play, and his character goes on a journey to discover “…human frailties which lie behind the mask of each character.”

I found this article slightly helpful. It gave a great summary of the plot, and it provided an interesting angle to examine Sidney Brustein. Honestly, I didn’t think that the play was about his personal journey. I have to disagree with Wilkerson that the play wasn’t about a plot. From reading the play, I thought the plot was Sidney and how his flaws changed his life.

For the project, this article would also be helpful to compare “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” to other Lorraine Hansberry productions. By comparing “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” to “A Raisin in the Sun” readers can see overarching themes. For example, “A Raisin in the Sun” focused on African American characters, while “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” only had one African American character, but what were the similarities between the two.

Anderson, Michael. “Education of Another Kind: Lorraine Hansberry in the Fifties.” Gender Nonconformity, Race, and Sexuality: Charting the Connections. Ed. Toni Lester. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002. p210-216.

This was a literary critique. Anderson uses Hansberry’s documents to track her development as a writer in the 1950s. Concerning “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” Anderson says that in this play Hansberry makes her “most direct statement on taking action.” The critique also discusses her characters, and their prominence. He also goes on to explain how her being a Marxist and other political ideas add to her calling for social commitment.

This critique is useful because it shows how Hansberry uses action to cause change with her works. By calling people to action, Hansberry affected what is our current society. The article doesn’t offer any plot summaries or character evaluations, but it makes up for it with details about her ideas on social change and how characters should be portrayed.

It also allows the reader to get an idea of how Hansberry crafted her characters, and how important it was that her characters are real and vivid.

Andria
"Political and Social Concerns." Feminism in Literature A Gale Critical Companion. 1st. 6. Farmington Hills: Thomson Gale, 2005. Print.

The article from A Gale Critical Companion describes Hansberry’s play as a reaction to the Theatre of the Absurd. Theatre of the Absurd was a movement characterizing humans as griping with the complexities life. The article suggests that The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window is an expression of Hansberry’s view of humanity as she takes the reader to extremes of humanism and realism. Hansberry often writes critically on social change and The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window' is no exception. This is an effective lit review as it is concise and discusses Hansberry's influences for her writing.

Mary Miller
Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. "Hansberry, Lorraine."Encyclopedia of Feminist Literature. New York, New York: Facts on File, 2006. Print.

In Mary Ellen Snodgrass’s Encyclopedia of Feminist Literature, she discusses famous female authors including playwright Lorraine Hansberry. Hansberry was an African American woman, who grew to fame in a time of male theater giants with her radical ideas. In her lesser known play The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, she reflected her personal knowledge of living in a pre civil rights community as a woman. She once said women in any lesser group are the most suppressed of the group thus becoming “twice suppressed” and “twice militant”. Her female characters in the play reflect this notion in their struggles to be recognized in a male-dominated community.

Snodgrass definitely gives an in depth discussion of the Hansberry’s motives in writing the play; however, it does not relate it to the characters to be specific enough. Although she references the females in the play, she gives no character names so that a reader could actually draw a theme from a portion of the play rather than just the play as a whole.