A Racial Concern: Adrienne Kennedy's Diary of Lights

Abstract

This article emphasizes the representation of 1950s culture in Diary of Lights. It examines the artistic and cultural references made by the play's major characters, beginning with Billie and followed by Roy, Eddie, Aisha, Mohammed, Margo, Aaron, and Ellen, and chronicles how they expose the tensions inspired by racism and prejudice in an integrationist (or post-segregationist) period. It concludes with a discussion on how the play reimagines aspects of Kennedy's biography in order to more accurately capture the feel of living in the 1950s.