Real American Entertainment: Performance and Nationalism in Branson, Missouri
Item
-
Title
-
Real American Entertainment: Performance and Nationalism in Branson, Missouri
-
Identifier
-
d_2009_2013:1c7d01057a33:10918
-
identifier
-
11242
-
Creator
-
Worth, Jennifer,
-
Contributor
-
Marvin Carlson
-
Date
-
2011
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Performing arts | American studies | Recreation | Branson | Nationalism | Performance
-
Abstract
-
My dissertation focuses on emblematic performances in Branson, Missouri, the "Live Entertainment Capital of the World," and demonstrates that Branson's performances are both commercial artistic properties and cultural and political markers of belonging for its audiences. After an introduction that lays out the basic history and scope of Branson, each of my four chapters is centered on a major idea used by Branson to market its "authentically" "American" entertainments, and paired with a corresponding archetype that producers perform and after which consumers are encouraged to model their behavior.;Chapter One deals with the theme of rurality, and demonstrates through two case studies, The Shepherd of the Hills and The Baldknobbers Jamboree Show, how the Hillbilly functions as the archetypal figure of pleasure and identification. Chapter Two discusses differences between "history" and "heritage" through a reading of Silver Dollar City, and traces the use of the Soldier-Patriot at the Veterans Memorial Museum, Celebrate America! and Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede, which explain how history is simultaneously invoked and ignored in the name of national unity.;Chapter Three inspects the role of evangelical Christianity in national identity, and assesses the role of the Evangelical in two spectacles, Noah, The Musical, and The Jim Bakker Show. The final chapter engages with the American Dream and uses the figure of the almost-assimilated Immigrant, as employed by headliners Shoji Tabuchi and Yakov Smirnoff who carefully craft and maintain perpetual "outsider" status.;I detail how this popular but overlooked site functions culturally for both its producers and its consumers, with two larger goals: to create a fuller picture of the American performance landscape and to interrogate the idea of "Americanness" at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
2009_2013.csv
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
-
Program
-
Theatre
