Benjamin A. Railton's Blog, page 279

September 27, 2016: Legends of the Fall: American Pastoral

[As the leaf-peeping begins in earnest (seriously, that’s a thing we do here in New England), a series on some iconic American images of the loss of innocence that we so often associate with autumn. Add your thoughts on falls, seasonal or symbolic, in comments!]On a novel with over-the-top moments that practically scream “loss of innocence,” and the quieter scene that much more potently captures it.To follow up the main idea from yesterday’s post, I experienced a very different kind of teenage literary loss of innocence when I decided to read Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint (1969) for pleasure in early high school (what can I say, I was a nerd and the son of an English professor to boot). I can still quite distinctly remember arriving at Chapter 2, “Whacking Off,” and encountering for the first time just exactly how far Roth is willing to go—how obscene, how graphic, how flagrantly over-the-top. For reasons not quite known to me, in my second semester at Fitchburg State I chose to put Portnoy on the syllabus of a junior-level seminar on “Major American Authors of the 20thCentury,” and got to see 25 undergrads—24 women, by chance—having their own such encounters with Roth, the novel, and that chapter in particular. Let’s just say it wasn’t just me.Roth’s late masterpiece American Pastoral (1997) is a far more realistic and restrained work than Portnoy, but nonetheless Roth includes a couple of distinctly Roth-ian over-the-top scenes, both symbolizing quite overtly his novel’s overall themes of the loss of innocence that accompanied the late 60s and early 70s in American culture and society. In the first, the novel’s now middle-aged protagonist, Swede Levov, meets with a seemingly innocent young women to try to learn the whereabouts of his missing daughter Merry; the woman turns out instead to be a brazen and cynical 60s radical, and she meets the Swede naked, graphically exposing and probing herself in front of him (while daring him to, in essence, rape her). In the second, the tour-de-force set piece with which Roth concludes the novel, a family dinner full of shocking revelations and betrayals is set against the backdrop of the televised Watergate hearings, and culminates with a crazy drunken woman stabbing an elderly man in the head with her fork.These scenes are as surprising and shocking as intended, and I suppose in that way they make Roth’s point. But if he intends the theme of the loss of innocence to be tragic as well as disturbing and comic (which those two scenes are, respectively), then I would point a far quieter and to my mind far more potent scene. In it, the Swede finally finds Merry and sees her again, for the only time between her teenage disappearance (after she bombs a local post office in political protest and kills an innocent bystander) and his own later death. He asks a few questions, but mostly what he does is listen (to her stories of all the horrors she has experienced in the years since the bombing) and observe (her literally fading life as a converted Jainist, one for whom any contact with the world is destructive and so self-deprivation and -starvation comprises the only meaningful future). As a parent, I can imagine nothing more shattering hearing and seeing such things from one of my children—and in the Swede’s quiet horror and sadness, Roth captures a far more powerful and chilling loss of innocence.Next fall tomorrow,BenPS. What do you think? Images of fall, or The Fall, you’d share?

September 26, 2016: Legends of the Fall: Young Adult Lit

[As the leaf-peeping begins in earnest (seriously, that’s a thing we do here in New England), a series on some iconic American images of the loss of innocence that we so often associate with autumn. Add your thoughts on falls, seasonal or symbolic, in comments!]On two iconic YA novels that fractured my innocence right alongside that of their characters.The early teenage years—those of late middle school into the beginning of high school—seem to resonate particularly well with the idea of a loss of innocence. I’m sure that kids who grow up in far more difficult situations than I did, or who have to deal with loss at a young age, or otherwise are confronted with the world’s darker realities experience the shift from innocence to experience, naivete to maturity, earlier. But even those of us who make it through childhood unscathed are going to come up against the harsher sides to life at some point, and ages 12-15 seems like a pretty common such milestone. I say that partly as a kid who was badly hazed by his cross country teammates during his freshman year of high school—but also partly the one who read John Knowles’ A Separate Peace (1959) and Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War (1974) and Beyond the Chocolate War (1985) in 8thgrade.I’d be lying if I said I remember much at all of the three books—that’s about 25 years, and a whole lot of books, under the bridge. But what I do remember are a couple of specific and very dark moments, of literal and symbolic falls: the seemingly accidental fall that Knowles’ protagonist Gene purposefully causes his friend Finny to take, a fall that eventually leads to Finny’s death (among other destructive effects); and a profoundly disturbing suicide scene in Cormier’s sequel, one that locates readers in the perspective of a young student leaping to his death after being ostracized and abused for his homosexuality by his peers and even a teacher. Obviously those weren’t the first literary deaths I had encountered—in 6th grade English I read Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians/And Then There Were None (1939), for crying out loud!—but they might have been the first in which kids my own age were killed, at least in such purposeful and brutal ways (ie, not the accidental drowning in Katherine Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia [1977], traumatic as that was for this young reader).Perhaps it was that sense of proximity and (in a way) threat to myself that led these particular moments, and the novels in which they occur, to hit me as hard as they did. Perhaps it was that all three books are deeply concerned with what it means to be a teenage boy, in some of the better but (I would argue) mostly some of the worst senses. And perhaps it’s a tribute to their interesting and almost entirely implicit engagement with the wars during which they’re set—Knowles does have his characters engage with World War II toward the end of his novel; I don’t believe Cormier mentions Vietnam at all, certainly not at length, but his titular war certainly gestures in that direction. War, after all, has long been one of the most overt and catastrophic ways in which young men—and their societies—lose their innocence; in my reading of these young adult novels and their effects on me, I was led to feel such effects far more intimately than might otherwise have been the case.Next fall tomorrow,BenPS. What do you think? Images of fall, or The Fall, you’d share?

September 24-25, 2016: Rhode Island Colleagues

[Other than a weeklong series inspired by a visit to Newport’s historic mansion The Breakers, I hadn’t had the chance to write much in this space about my neighbor to the south. That all changed this week, leading up to this special post on some of my many wonderful RI colleagues!]Highlighting five of the many wonderful Rhode Island scholars I’m proud to call AmericanStudying colleagues.1)      Nancy Caronia: As that hyperlinked academia.edu page reflects, Nancy has recently started a tenure-track job in the West Virginia University English Department (and they’re very lucky to have her!). But I met her while she was a graduate student at the University of Rhode Island, an institution to which she gave a great deal during her time there, including her vital work in developing the Diversity Week at which I was honored to give a book talk a few years back. She’s also one of our best scholars of Italian American literature, as this Guest Post illustrates. I’m sure she’ll carry a lot of Rhode Island with her as she brings all those talents and much more to WVU!2)      Laura Mattoon D’Amore: An Assistant Professor of American Studies at Roger Williams University (located in Bristol, RI), Laura has contributed immensely to the New England American Studies Association, including helping direct (along with colleague #5 below) our 2014 Conference at RWU. She’s also one of our best scholars of motherhood, gender, and family (among other topics) in 20th and 21stcentury literature and popular culture (especially the crucial contemporary genre of superhero culture). Can’t wait to see where she takes those profoundly AmericanStudies interests next! 3)      Beazley Kanost: Now an adjunct professor of English at Roger Williams and Film/Media at URI, Beazley joined the New England ASA while still a grad student at URI, when she proposed a paper for the 2011 conference at Plimoth Plantation that I directed. That paper was part of her work toward her phenomenally titled and in-all-ways impressive dissertation, Off the Hip: a Thermodynamics of the Cool. Her work on James Baldwin (part of this great collection of essays) taught me a lot about that vital 20thcentury figure. And she did great work for years in the thankless but crucial role of NEASA Treasurer.4)      Jon Marcoux: I met Jon, an archaeologist in the Cultural and Historic Preservation Department at Newport’s Salve Regina University (one of the most spectacularly located universities I’ve ever visited), when he joined the NEASA Council and helped plan our third annual Colloquium. Along with NEASA colleagues like Akeia Benard, he helped bring archaeology, cultural anthropology, and their engagements with Native American Studies to NEASA, as he’s a leading scholarly voice in all those disciplines. His book Pox, Empire, Shackles, and Hides: The Townsend Site, 1670-1715 (2010) contributed immeasurably to all of them, and fundamentally changed my understanding of the Cherokee and of US-Native American relations.5)      Jeffrey Meriwether: A Roger Williams History Professor, Jeffrey served as the 2014 NEASA President and directed that 2014 conference at RWU (along with his colleague Laura). He also has one of the most interesting hobbies/passions I’ve ever encountered in an AmericanStudier: he reenacts Revolutionary War battles from the English side as part of the famous Boston group His Majesty’s Tenth Regiment of Foot, including taking part in the annual reenactment of the 1775 Lexington conflict on Patriot’s Day. He’s also such a dedicated military historian that, having started but not completed a Navy ROTC program in college, he enlisted in the Navy Reserve in order to better understand his discipline. One more detail that illustrates how great a group of Rhode Island colleagues I’ve got!Next series starts Monday,BenPS. Colleagues (anywhere) whose work and voices you’d highlight?

September 23, 2016: Rhode Island Histories: Providence Sites

[Other than a weeklong series inspired by a visit to Newport’s historic mansion The Breakers, I haven’t had the chance to write much in this space about my neighbor to the south. Well, Little Rhody, that changes this week! Leading up to a special post on some of my many wonderful RI colleagues!]Yesterday’s political corruption post focused on some of the worst of Providence and Rhode Island, so I wanted to end the series with a few examples of the best of that beautiful city:1)      Roger Williams National Memorial: There’s a lot in Providence and the surrounding areas named after and honoring the city’s inspiring founder, including a beautiful park and a university about which more this weekend. But at the heart of those commemorations is the National Park Service’s historic site, which features not only extensive museums and spaces dedicated to remembering Williams but also impressive gardens (including, very aptly, a Native American Garden and Visitor Center) and many other unique spaces (such as the Hahn Memorial, which honors Isaac Hahn, the first Jewish American elected to public office in Providence). As I wrote in Monday’s post, Williams deserves a significant space in our collective American memories and narratives, and the memorial is a great starting point and model for sure.2)      Providence Athanaeum: America’s fourth oldest libraryis a special place for many reasons, but one 19th century story particularly stands out. When Edgar Allan Poe commenced a courtship with Providence poet and icon (and wealthy widow) Sarah Helen Whitman, he did so by visiting herwhere she spent the majority of her time, at the Athanaeum. Their resulting engagement would end as oddly and abruptly as many of Poe’s connections, and less than a year later Poe would die (Whitman remained a public supporter of his for many years after). But thanks to the unique site of their shared time, we have a record not only of their romance, but also of what both literary figures were reading during that period—a truly original way to understand these early 19th century authors and their lives and relationship, and one more reason to visit the Athanaeum (virtually and in person). 3)      RISD Museum: Providence is home to a number of prominent colleges and universities, including one of the nation’s oldest and most esteemed, Brown University. Yet the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) is historic in its own right, exemplified by its 1877 founding by members of the Rhode Island Women’s Centennial Commission, and today it offers not only an unparalleled education in art and design, but also a unique and wonderful art museum. Fulfilling a longstanding goal of the Rhode Island Art Association “to establish in Providence a permanent Art Museum and Gallery of the Arts and Design,” the museum features both broad and deep collections of art and artifacts (it holds more than 86,000 such works in total) and a connection to RISD’s students, faculty, and resources that allows for groundbreaking exhibitions and projects. To cite only one, the RISD Art Circle (RAC) brings together young artists and other community members to create, engage with the collections, advance public service projects, and represent the best of this vibrant southeastern New England community and city.Special post this weekend,BenPS. What do you think? Histories and stories from RI (or any state) you’d highlight?

September 22, 2016: Rhode Island Histories: Political Corruption

[Other than a weeklong series inspired by a visit to Newport’s historic mansion The Breakers, I haven’t had the chance to write much in this space about my neighbor to the south. Well, Little Rhody, that changes this week! Leading up to a special post on some of my many wonderful RI colleagues!]Three figures who embody the small state’s outsized history of corruption.1)      Joseph Bevilacqua: There’s a lot in that hyperlinked New York Times obituary for disgraced former State Majority Leader and Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court Bevilacqua that illustrates the manifold varieties of corruptionto which he was allegedly linked before his resignation from the court. Aiding and abetting a criminal for a share of the stolen goods. Officiating at the wedding of an incarcerated mob boss’s chauffeur. Visiting an organized crime-tied motel for illicit encounters with his secretary and others. Longstanding friendships with numerous criminal leaders. The man was a Scorcese film in the flesh. But I think there’s one particular line in that obituary which reflects the statewide legacy of corruption to which Bevilacqua’s individual example connects: “He is survived by … his son, State Senator John J. Bevilacqua.” (To be very clear, I’m not suggesting that John was in any way corrupt—but it’s nonetheless telling that the son of man who spent decades under investigation for that variety of charges would be elected to the same legislature in which his father had served.)2)      Edward DiPrete: DiPrete, a three-term Republican Governor of Rhode Island (from 1985 to 1991), is also the state’s first former governor to have served time in jail; he pleaded guilty in 1998 to 18 charges of bribery, extortion, and racketeering, largely stemming from hundreds of thousands of dollars of state contracts he awarded during his time as governor, and spent a year in prison. In DiPrete’s case multi-generational family involvement in the political corruption was very much at the heart of his situation, as he took the plea in exchange for leniency toward his son Dennis, a co-defendant in the case who along with his father had been under investigation since 1990. But the more representative aspects of the DiPrete case are its close connection to the Rhode Island construction industry, which has long been associated with organized crime and political corruption at a level seemingly unmatched by any other state. Given stories like that hyperlinked Providence Journal article, it’s fair to ask whether any Rhode Island governor or politician could entirely escape those ties; certainly the DiPretes did not.3)      Buddy Cianci: Born and raised in the Providence area, Cianci served as the city’s mayor from 1975 until 1984, when he pleaded nolo contendere to an assault charge (ironically, the least corruption-related of any of the scandals detailed in this post, although it was a contractor whom he was alleged to have assaulted) and resigned the post. He then tried to run in the special election for his successor, but a rule he had supported making it illegal for convicted felons to hold public office in the state prohibited him from doing so. But times and rules change, and in 1990 Cianci successfully ran for mayor of Providence once more, this time governing from 1991 to 2002 (making him the city’s longest-serving mayor). In 2002 he was running unopposed for a seventh consecutive term when he was convicted on federal racketeering charges and sentenced to five years in prison, leading to a second forced resignation. In any other state that would likely be the end of the political story—but this is Rhode Island, and in 2014 Cianci ran for mayor yet again! He lost that time, but nonetheless, I can’t think of a more Rhode Island political moment than a two-time convicted felon running for a third separate stint as mayor of the state’s capitol. Last RI history tomorrow,BenPS. What do you think? Histories and stories from RI (or any state) you’d highlight?

September 21, 2016: Rhode Island Histories: The Name

[Other than a weeklong series inspired by a visit to Newport’s historic mansion The Breakers, I haven’t had the chance to write much in this space about my neighbor to the south. Well, Little Rhody, that changes this week! Leading up to a special post on some of my many wonderful RI colleagues!]Two debates over the Ocean State’s name, and why we should better remember it in any case.I don’t think it’s common knowledge, even up here in New England, but Little Rhody’s full name is the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. That lengthy appellation is due to the combination of two initially separate English colonies, the Rhode Island colony (which included Newport, Narragansett Bay, and Portsmouth) and Roger Williams’ Providence Plantations (which evolved into the city of Providence). While the word “plantation” in the latter name likely originated (as it did for William Bradford’s naming of Plimoth Plantation to the north) in the concept of the “plantations of God” (a phrase still in use in the 1830s, as illustrated by a quote from Emerson’s “Nature”), it nonetheless conjures up unfortunately histories of oppression and slavery (of both Native and African Americans), ones to which Rhode Island like all New England was certainly linked. Because of those echoes, the Rhode Island General Assembly in 2009 initiated of the state’s official name—but by a wide majority (78% to 22%) Rhode Islanders voted in November 2010 to keep the full name as is.The history of the Rhode Island part of the state’s name is less controversial, but still a source of uncertainty and debate. The phrase initially referred to a specific area known by its Native American name, Aquidneck Island, and settled by English followers of Anne Hutchinson in 1636; Roger Williams first used the name “Rhode Island” for that region in 1637, and in 1644 the Rhode Island General Court decreed that “Aquethneck shall be henceforth called the Isle of Rodes or Rhode-Island.” But the origins of the “Rhode” part remain in doubt, with at least two competing historical theories: that it was derived from Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano’s likening the island to the Greek isle of Rhodes during his 1524 voyage through Narragansett Bay, and the English utilized his comparison in naming the island upon their arrival; or that it derives instead from Dutch explorer Adriaen Block’s description of the area as “an island of Reddish appearance” in a 1625 account of his own voyage through the region, which the Dutch word “rodlich” transformed into “Rhode” in English. It’s of course entirely possible that both of these moments and perspectives played a role in the English take, and that even by the 1630s (much less in our own far more distant era) the name represented a murky combination of factors.It’s precisely those multiple factors and histories that make it so important for us to better remember every part of the name “the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,” though. As I wrote in Monday’s post, Roger Williams’ role in founding the English colony is I believe relatively familiar, although there’s plenty more we can and should remember about that inspiring individual. But if we can recognize that even America’s smallest state represents a combination of the journeys and followers of Williams and Anne Hutchinson, of the native histories of Aquidneck and Narragansett (a 30,000 year old Native American tribe that played a key role in every colonial New England history and continues to evolve in our own era), and of Italian and Dutch explorers and perspectives, among other moments and influences, then we can start to truly appreciate the cross-cultural origins and evolutions of each and every part of our nation. Not so little at all, Rhody.Next RI history tomorrow,BenPS. What do you think? Histories and stories from RI (or any state) you’d highlight?

September 20, 2016: Rhode Island Histories: Beavertail Lighthouse

[Other than a weeklong series inspired by a visit to Newport’s historic mansion The Breakers, I haven’t had the chance to write much in this space about my neighbor to the south. Well, Little Rhody, that changes this week! Leading up to a special post on some of my many wonderful RI colleagues!]Three telling moments in the history of the third oldest American lighthouse.1)      Revolutionary shifts: After years of petitions and plans, a lighthouse was finally built on Beavertail Point, at the mouth of Narragansett Bay, in 1749. Less than thirty years later, in December 1776, the British occupied nearby Newport, controlling the city and its region and waterways for nearly three years. When the Continental Army forced the British to retreat in October 1779, they burned the lighthouse nearly to the ground on their way out and took the light with them. In the years after the Revolution the light was rebuilt and –assembled, but this wasn’t the only Revolutionary change, as the 1789 Congressional Lighthouse Act took over federal control of all the nation’s lighthouses and made Newport’s customs collector (and a Signer of the Declaration of Independence), William Ellery, Beavertail’s first superintendent. Each of these shifts reflects how much the Revolution and its military and political aftermaths affected every place and part of the American landscape.2)      Industrialization’s influences: An 1851 report described the original wooden lighthouse as the “worst built tower yet seen,” and by 1856 a new, granite lighthouse with all new illuminating equipment and a fog signal (utilizing compressed air, invented by Connecticut’s Celabon Leeds Daboll, and known as the Daboll trumpet), had been completed (and remains in operation to this day). That process and its details alone suggests the impact of industrialization and its effects on American society and culture. Yet the next few years saw even more innovations, including the 1857 installation of the nation’s first steam whistle and in 1866 another new fog signal, this one based on a hot air process developed by Swedish American engineer and inventor John Ericsson(designer of the famous Civil War ironclad the Monitor). It’s easy to think of lighthouses as relatively unchanging parts of a nation’s landscape, but Beavertail reflects just how much invention and industrialization impacted the light and helped revolutionize the society around it at the same time.3)      The Hurricane of 1938: It certainly has competition, but by most accounts the Great New England Hurricane of 1938 remains the worst storm ever recorded in New England. While lighthouses are of course intended to aid in such conditions, it’s also fair to say that they—and their keepers and inhabitants—are among the most vulnerable and threatened spots in any storm. Carl Chellis, who had been Beavertail keeper for less than a year when the hurricane hit in late September, survived the storm, but his young daughter died when her school bus was thrown by the wind; assistant keeper Edward Donahue leapt into the water to survive a collapsing engine room and was rescued when his son dove in after him. Further out in Narragansett Bay the storm produced an even more tragic result, as Whale Rock Lighthouse was entirely destroyed and its assistant keeper Walter Eberle (a Navy veteran determined to keep the lighthouse working during the storm) killed. I’d like to think that with today’s technologies such tragedies could be averted, and of course lighthouses are now automated rather than kept by hand; but hurricanes, whether in these Beavertail histories or in our own era, remain primal reminders of those things no human advances can control.Next RI history tomorrow,BenPS. What do you think? Histories and stories from RI (or any state) you’d highlight?

September 19, 2016: Rhode Island Histories: Roger Williams

[Other than a weeklong series inspired by a visit to Newport’s historic mansion The Breakers, I haven’t had the chance to write much in this space about my neighbor to the south. Well, Little Rhody, that changes this week! Leading up to a special post on some of my many wonderful RI colleagues!]Two inspiring layers, and one frustrating one, to the life and identity of the founder of English RI.1)      His Progressivism: I think it’s relatively well known (at least up here in New England) that Williams’ religious beliefs (including the separation of church and state) were too progressive for the Puritans, who expelled him from Massachusetts as a result. But in a 21st century world where public dissent is as easy as signing up for social media or recording a YouTube video, it’s worth remembering just how striking it was for any inhabitant of tiny, insular, hugely homogeneous early 17th century Puritan Massachusetts to express and fight for such alternative, progressive views. And Williams’ progressivism didn’t stop there, as he dedicated much of his life to advocating for Native American rights and a good portion of it to fighting for the abolition of slavery in New England (a forgotten subject on which a great new scholarly book, Wendy Warren’s New England Bound,focuses). Williams might well have been the most progressive 17thcentury European American—and he’s definitely on the short list!2)      His Writings: Williams’ first and best-known book fits directly into that progressivism: A Key into the Language of America (1643), the first study of Native American languages in English and, to my knowledge, one of the most thoughtful and nuanced investigations of Native American cultures and communities published by any European throughout the centuries of contact and settlement. Demonstrating the breadth of his interests and talents, Williams published in the following year The Bloody Tenet of Persecution, for Cause of Conscience, Discussed in a Conference between Truth and Peace (1644), which uses the idea of individual conscience to argue in opposition to Massachusetts’ religious uniformity and for the aforementioned separation of church and state. Williams would go on to publish many more books and pamphlets, espousing and extending his religious beliefs and ideas; but to be honest, if he had only published these pioneering first two, he’d still be one of the most unique and significant early American writers.3)      His Last Public Action: In Christopher Nolan’s film The Dark Knight, Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent argues that “you either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” Villain is far too strong a term for Roger Williams’ final public action, but it was at the very least deeply ironic: during the brutal 1675-76 conflict between the English and Native Americans that came to be known as King Philip’s War, the 70-something Williams was elected captain of Providence’s militia; not only did this mean he had to lead the fight against native communities with which he had been a longstanding friend and ally, but in the course of that fight much of Providence, including Williams’ own house, was burned. In a chapter in my second book I make the case, through Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative and changing perspective, that violence and division were not the only—or at least not the necessary—endpoints of English and Native American relations in the 17thcentury. But far far too often that is where they ended up, and such was the case for even the progressive and inspiring Roger Williams.Next RI history tomorrow,BenPS. What do you think? Histories and stories from RI (or any state) you’d highlight?

September 17-18, 2016: Crowd-sourced MusicalStudying

[September 12thmarked the 150th anniversary of the first performance of The Black Crook , generally considered the first stage musical (although opinions vary). So this week I’ve AmericanStudied both Crook and other exemplary stage musicals, leading up to this crowd-sourced post, featuring the responses and thoughts of fellow AmericanStudiers—add your overtures in comments!]
Responding to Thursday’s post, Irene Martyniuk writes, “As someone who teaches Modern Drama and a seminar on Literature and Pandemics, I would really push that Angels in America was the moment. This is not to vote off Rent or anything, but Angels won two Tony Awards--for Parts I and II and made the American art world a clear forum for the acknowledgement of HIV/AIDS. The historical elements of the play accurately convey President Reagan's non-response to HIV/AIDS and while, indeed, Cohn's character is fictionalized, the litany of his rulings, as well as facts from his private life, are not. Furthermore, I would argue that the plays are truly American. Kushner has talked about why he used Mormon characters--it is an American indigenous religion. It is also, as you noted, both lewd and ridiculously hilarious. And finally, in my Modern Drama class, I regularly have on the final exam a question that asks students to choose one of the plays we've read and explain why, in an essay, it will still be in the anthology in 100 years. Overwhelmingly, the answers are divided between two plays--Angels and Waiting for Godot. So, yes, Rent is important and has much to say, but Angels, to my mind, broke the door open so that Rentcould exist.”Following up Friday’s post, Rob Bartolome writes, “I saw 1776 on Broadway when I was around 10. It's pretty dry, and noticeably white even for a 10-year-old. I remember liking it, but not sure why -- I only remember a painfully long scene where a self-loathing Thomas Jefferson paces back and forth, singing each and every draft of the Declaration before he rips it up and starts the song over for the fifth time. But long story short, I couldn't help but think of Hamilton as The Wiz of Founding Father musicals. But I realized, as Hamilton embraces culture and diversity and different styles of music, it's become way more American than 1776 will ever be.”Other MusicalStudying:Andrea Grenadier highlights, “The quintessential Jewish musical (by Jerry Herman) Milk and Honey !,” adding, “it wouldn't be politic to perform it now, but the music is splendid!”Sunny Stalter-Pace writes, “Aside from the one I'm talking about this weekend? (Hamilton, that is.) I've taught Day of Atonement and The Jazz Singer .”Dan O’Harashares Gina Masucci MacKenzie’s great book, The Theatre of the Real: Yeats, Beckett, and Sondheim . And Seferine Baez adds, “Not sure if anyone's brought up Les Mis yet but how could it be left out. Thinking of it in the context of any work that tries to display a version or specific perspective of a historical event it may not be as great. It is largely drawn from a single tiny battle in the grand scheme of the French Revolution (which I believe there were actually multiple of); as a lover of the musical though it often does not matter. It may be misleading in this way but it still deals with social and economic class, government corruption, poverty, and many more themes successfully. That last remake was a real masterpiece but there's something to be said about sort of cult classics and their significance. To make the jump from a lengthy and largely historical novel/memoir (kind of) to movies and musicals and musical movies and to show no signs of slowly down or stopping in popularity specifically in those last two forms is a real accomplishment! I would gladly spend some big bucks to see it again and own two different cast versions.”Next series starts Monday,BenPS. What do you think? Other musicals you’d highlight and analyze?

September 16, 2016: MusicalStudying: Allegiance and Hamilton

[September 12thmarked the 150th anniversary of the first performance of The Black Crook , generally considered the first stage musical (although opinions vary). So this week I’ll AmericanStudy both Crook and other exemplary stage musicals—and will ask you to share your solos and choruses for a crowd-pleasing weekend post that’s sure to garner a standing O!]On what links and what differentiates two important recent musicals.Before this week’s series, I hadn’t written a lot about American musicals and musical theater in this space, but when I did I tended to focus on socially progressive and culturally significant texts: Zitkala-Sa and William Hanson’s Sun Dance Opera(1913), for one example; DuBose Heyward and George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (1935), for another. Each of those works is complex and in need of more extended analysis, but both, it’s fair to say, broke from their genres’ conventions and traditions to portray American identities and communities in groundbreaking and important ways. And what that would mean, to make the complementary point overtly, is that the conventions and traditions of American musical theater tend to be socially conservative (perhaps more so than many of our cultural forms), to feature on the stage identities and communities in ways that flatter our mainstream ideals rather than challenge, complicate, or broaden those narratives. Which is to say, what the Tom Shows did with Uncle Tom’s Cabin, turning a divisive and clearly activist work into a safe and stereotyping mainstream popular entertainment, could be read as a symptom of a much larger trend in American musical theater.Whether or not that’s really been the case overall (and I welcome comments on other ways to read our musical theater histories!), the last year has witnessed a couple very prominent steps in the more progressive direction. Jay Kuo and Lorenzo Thione’s Japanese Internment musical Allegiance, which debuted in San Diego in 2012, opened on Broadway in October 2015, featuring George Takei (on whose experiences in an internment camp the musical is partly based) among its acclaimed cast. And in August 2015, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Revolutionary War and Founding era musical Hamilton moved from its award-winning Off-Broadway run to Broadway, where it has continued and extended its popular and critical successes. Along with their shared attempts to bring American history to the stage, these two musicals also utilize casting to advance their progressive goals: Allegiancefeatures a richly diverse group of Asian American actors (including the three leads from the San Diego debut) amidst its impressively multi-ethnic cast; while Hamiltonhas famously gone even further in the direction of diversity, casting all Hispanic and African American actors as its European American characters (including Miranda himself in the initial run of the title role) and reserving the role of King George for its only white actor, Brian D’Arcy James. In who as well as what’s on the stage, both these new musicals are unquestionably challenging and changing the genre.Yet in another way, the two musicals offer two quite distinct illustrations of the nature and politics of the musical as a cultural form. (To be clear, I haven’t had a chance to see either live yet, but have heard many of their songs and am also responding to numerous reviews of each. Again, I welcome further comments below!) The songs and musical numbers in Allegiance are consistently upbeat, and seem (both to this listener and to many reviewers) jarring alongside the much darker moments and settings through which the musical moves its characters. The rap and hip hop songs and numbers in Hamilton, on the other hand, align (counter-intuitively yet pitch-perfectly) with both the musical’s innovative casting and its portrayals of the Revolutionary and Founding figures and histories. That is, the music in Allegiance feels tied more to the musical genre’s conservative conventions, and thus at odds with the play’s progressive goals in ways that create a sense of dissonance; while Hamilton’s more radical musical choices parallel its progressiveness and create a sense of artistic as well as political coherence. I’m thankful that both these musicals are on the stage in 2016, but am especially thankful for the thoroughly innovative brilliance that is Hamilton.Crowd-sourced post this weekend,BenPS. So one last time: what do you think? Other musicals you’d highlight and analyze?