Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
English
Advisor's Name
Steven Blevins
Advisor's Title
Committee Chair
Advisor's Name
Kenneth Johnson
Advisor's Name
Heather Russell
Keywords
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Wizard of Oz, Wicked, Evil, Good, American Myth, National Identity, Race, Gender, Class, Popular Culture, American Culture, Terrorism, Other, Nationalism, Reproduction, Commodification, Deconstruction, Historical, Ideological
Date of Defense
7-13-2012
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to address the way in which several quite varied and often commodified representations of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) express and reproduce shifting notions of national identity within American culture across the twentieth century and at the beginning of our own. This thesis pursues the question of national identity that the American myth perpetuates throughout the twentieth century and examines the shift in citizenship through representations found in popular culture’s re-writings of the Wizard of Oz tale. This thesis evaluates both original and contemporary adaptations of the Oz story and their deconstruction for sociohistorical representations of racial, gendered, class, and national identity. I argue, that the numerous historical and ideological comparisons from the Oz tale reflect our own world in our discussions of identity, race, class, and gender and have become significant reflections of our own imaginations and national identity.
Recommended Citation
Orshan, Carly A., "An American Tale: Incarnations of the Wizard of Oz and the Negotiation of Identity, Race, and Gender, in Popular Culture" (2012). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 676.
http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/676