Lady Liberty: Intertextual Performances of Gender and Nation

 
 
 
 

Lady Liberty: Intertextual Performances of Gender and Nation

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dc.contributor.advisor Shields, Ronald en_US
dc.contributor.author Joyce, Parisa en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2009-04-09T23:34:27Z
dc.date.available 2009-04-09T23:34:27Z
dc.date.created 2008 en_US
dc.date.issued 2009-04-09T23:34:27Z
dc.identifier.uri http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1213635875 en_US
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2374.OX/104833
dc.description This study explores how a variety of artistic representations of the Statue of Liberty have worked over the past half-century to reflect aspects of nation through the gendered performances of a particular set of American women as ideal constructs, objects for commodification and consumption. The first inquiry explores the play entitled Miss Liberty, written by Robert E. Sherwood, with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin, and first produced in 1949. Although conceived as an historical play loosely based on fact, the play provides a unique perspective on women's roles in society during the late 1940s. On the one hand the play forces nostalgic ideas of nationalism and outmoded views of women, while on the other, exposes a mid-twentieth century response to rising feminist thought and behavior. The second exploration discusses construction of the feminine ideal as presented through the popular film Miss Congeniality and the ritual of the national beauty pageant. As the bodies of the contestants conflate with those codes established by/for Lady Liberty in the film, they drive a more complex impulse that refashions women as adornments for a national concern. Consequently, this film works to strengthen our relationship with our most revered national icon, formalizing further our collective gender-driven national mythologies, and ultimately memorializing limiting conditions of feminine performance, agency, and ideals of American womanhood. The final chapter brings the themes investigated in the previous two chapters together in an original solo performance that both explicates and further parodies what I see as a national phenomenon. My scripted performance of Liberty Now builds upon our national construction of women as nation through the blending of "Miss Liberty" images with live performance. Designed to first perform the narrative currently in play and then to pull the audience into a complicit forum to deconstruct our national narrative, the satirical play of resistance within Liberty Now anticipates a utopian-like place (or point of imaginative speculation). To do so allows for the possibility of innovative and tangible, but most profoundly, equitable future narratives for women. en_US
dc.format application/pdf en_US
dc.format 264p. en_US
dc.rights unrestricted en_US
dc.rights Copyright and permissions information available at the source archive en_US
dc.subject Theatre en_US
dc.subject solo performance, gender performance, nationalism, Liberty en_US
dc.title Lady Liberty: Intertextual Performances of Gender and Nation en_US
dc.type Electronic Thesis or Dissertation en_US
dc.degree.name PhD en_US
dc.degree.level doctoral en_US
dc.degree.discipline Theatre and Film en_US
dc.degree.grantor Bowling Green State University en_US
dc.contributor.publisher Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK en_US

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