Type of Document	Thesis
Author	Brown, Meredith Kate
Author's Email Address	mkb3890@yahoo.com
URN	etd-04012004-131500
Title	Spinning Pagans or Americans?: Dance and Identity Issues in Stowe, Twain, and James
Degree	Master of Arts
Department	English, Department of
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title W.T. Lhamon, Jr. Committee Chair Barry Faulk Committee Member Dennis Moore Committee Member
Keywords	Etiquette Minstrelsy Waltz Blackface Layering
Date of Defense	2004-04-01
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract Evolution of the American performance culture between 1850-1910 was deeply rooted within broad social and cultural changes. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, and Henry James engage the reflective quality of performance culture to interrogate these social and cultural changes and to address their place in an increasingly diverse America. In this paper, I discuss the elements of performance culture, specifically dance scenes, which these authors write to draw the readers’ attention to American identity issues. These scenes expose the authors’ apprehension and resistance toward changes in the stereotypical American identity. I argue that James is less able to compromise his portrait of the ideal American than Stowe and Twain, which explains his abandonment of the exploration of human consciousness in favor of inanimate objects in his 1907 travel novel, The American Scene.
Files	Filename       Size       Approximate Download Time (Hours:Minutes:Seconds)     28.8 Modem   56K Modem   ISDN (64 Kb)   ISDN (128 Kb)   Higher-speed Access    01.mkb.prelims.pdf 78.67 Kb 00:00:21 00:00:11 00:00:09 00:00:04 < 00:00:01   02.mkb.text.pdf 338.52 Kb 00:01:34 00:00:48 00:00:42 00:00:21 00:00:01   03.mkb.bibliography.pdf 111.03 Kb 00:00:30 00:00:15 00:00:13 00:00:06 < 00:00:01