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Since the "unfilmed original screenplay" of A Raisin in the Sun was first published in 1992, a storm of controversy has arisen over the changes between Lorraine Hansberry's original screenplay and the final, filmed screenplay. That Hansberry's screenplay was bowdlerized out of racist concerns is now left unquestioned, and no one has yet scrutinized these assumptions in order to test their validity. Even as recendy as 2004, Lisbeth Lipari's article, '"Fearful of the Written Word': White Fear, Black Writing, and Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun Screenplay," appeared in Quarterly Journal of Speech. Lipari's work is only the most recent, scholarly judgment that maintains the status quo consensus on this issue. Her goal was to "trace the metamorphosis of whiteness through its journey from Hansberry's original 1 959 screenplay to its transformation into the 1 961 film medi- ated by Columbia Pictures' Hollywood production and marketing machine" (82). Were the modifications to Hansberry's original screenplay of A Raisin in the Sun indeed a product of "white fear," or were the alterations made by the studio the norm for stage-to-screen adaptations of that era?
It should be noted that despite any changes, Hansberry received sole screenplay credit; no one has ever claimed status as an uncredited writer or collaborator. I shall first look at the changes Hansberry made when she adapted the screenplay from her play before moving on to the cuts the studio made before the film's release. By the end of this paper, I intend to answer the central question as to whether racist fear indeed victimized the original screenplay of A Raisin in the Sun.
Enormously successful on Broadway, A Raisin in the Sun tan for nineteen months and won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, making Hansberry the youngest American and the first Black to do so (Hill and Hatch 376). The play revolves around the Younger family, including Lena, her daughter Beneatha, and son Walter, along with Walter's wife (Ruth) and son (Travis). The action of the play begins the day before the Youngers will receive a $10,000 check, complements of the deceased elder Younger. Beneatha dreams of attend- ing medical school. Walter, on the other hand, hopes to own a liquor store. Ruth just wants out of their...