Shared more. Cited more. Safe forever.
    • advanced search
    • submit works
    • about
    • help
    • contact us
    • login
    View Item 
    •   MOspace Home
    • University of Missouri-Columbia
    • Graduate School - MU Theses and Dissertations (MU)
    • Theses and Dissertations (MU)
    • Dissertations (MU)
    • 2012 Dissertations (MU)
    • 2012 MU dissertations - Freely available online
    • View Item
    •   MOspace Home
    • University of Missouri-Columbia
    • Graduate School - MU Theses and Dissertations (MU)
    • Theses and Dissertations (MU)
    • Dissertations (MU)
    • 2012 Dissertations (MU)
    • 2012 MU dissertations - Freely available online
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
    advanced searchsubmit worksabouthelpcontact us

    Browse

    All of MOspaceCommunities & CollectionsDate IssuedAuthor/ContributorTitleIdentifierThesis DepartmentThesis AdvisorThesis SemesterThis CollectionDate IssuedAuthor/ContributorTitleIdentifierThesis DepartmentThesis AdvisorThesis Semester

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular AuthorsStatistics by Referrer

    The American musical stage as a site of utopian possibilities : subversive representations of race and gender in Violet and Caroline, or change

    Johnson, Brett D. (Brett Douglas)
    View/Open
    [PDF] public.pdf (15.79Kb)
    [PDF] research.pdf (11.52Mb)
    [PDF] short.pdf (46.60Kb)
    Date
    2012
    Format
    Thesis
    Metadata
    [+] Show full item record
    Abstract
    When considering American musicals as social barometers that both reflect and shape the national zeitgeist, two major traditions have been identified: the mid-twentieth-century Golden Age model, which champions the mainstream ideology, and the "anti-musical" or "countermythology," which challenges the social and aesthetic status quo. The latter, which originated in West Side Story (1957) but proliferated in the musicals of Stephen Sondheim, often include outsider characters who challenge the hegemonic structures of racism, sexism, and middle-class privilege. This study draws upon a range of theories from theatre, history, musicology, sociology, critical race theory, feminist theory, religious studies, and cultural studies to investigate how two contemporary musicals - Violet (1997), an adaptation of Doris Betts' short story "The Ugliest Pilgrim," which tells the story of a disfigured Southern woman's journey of spiritual healing, and Caroline, or Change (2003), an original musical about a middle-aged African American maid, emotionally scarred by racism and sexism, working for a Jewish family in Lake Charles, Louisiana, circa 1963 - function as social documents and in relation to these two traditions in American musical theatre. This study also examines how the works were created, with special attention to the relationship between convention and subversion within the creative process. The study concludes that both female protagonists challenge essentialist cultural representations of race and gender, and both musicals create a site of utopian possibilities within a dystopic social reality.
    URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/10355/35186
    https://doi.org/10.32469/10355/35186
    Degree
    Ph. D.
    Thesis Department
    Theatre (MU)
    Rights
    OpenAccess.
    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.
    Collections
    • Theatre electronic theses and dissertations (MU)
    • 2012 MU dissertations - Freely available online

    Send Feedback
    hosted by University of Missouri Library Systems
     

     


    Send Feedback
    hosted by University of Missouri Library Systems