Melodrama and the Myth of AmericaIn nineteenth-century America, popular theatre acted as the vehicle for the construction of a national ideology. Melodrama and the Myth of America looks at five popular plays that took as their subjects important issues in American life: Metamora and the "Indian" Question, The Drunkard and the temperance movement, Uncle Tom's Cabin and slavery, My Partner and the American West, and Shenandoah and the Civil War. These plays present American history as a grand melodrama. |
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Page 37
... began to attempt major roles , he was competing with the likes of Kean , Junius Brutus Booth , and William Charles Macready . Alger reports that during the early years of Forrest's career , some scorned him simply because he was an ...
... began to attempt major roles , he was competing with the likes of Kean , Junius Brutus Booth , and William Charles Macready . Alger reports that during the early years of Forrest's career , some scorned him simply because he was an ...
Page 69
... began a business and a family , but who " grew fond of ardent spirits " and so neglected his respon- sibilities and finished his life as a " useless pest , " who , drunk , " staggers through mud and through filth , to his hut " where ...
... began a business and a family , but who " grew fond of ardent spirits " and so neglected his respon- sibilities and finished his life as a " useless pest , " who , drunk , " staggers through mud and through filth , to his hut " where ...
Page 159
... began holding joint reunions during the 1880s , and in 1888 — the same year that the first version of Shenandoah opened in Boston - celebrated the twenty - fifth anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg ( Pressly 156 ) . As for ...
... began holding joint reunions during the 1880s , and in 1888 — the same year that the first version of Shenandoah opened in Boston - celebrated the twenty - fifth anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg ( Pressly 156 ) . As for ...
Contents
Constructing American Ideology | 1 |
Metamora 1829 and the Indian Question | 23 |
The Drunkard 1844 and the Temperance Movement | 61 |
Copyright | |
7 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
abolitionism abolitionist action actual Aiken American antebellum antislavery argued assures audience battle become California characters Christian civilization Clare colonial concept Confederate convention Cribbs culture death defined depicted discourse drama drinking drunkard Edward Edwin Forrest English evil experience fight flag Forrest George gold Howard idea ideology Indian Indian removal individual interaction Joe Saunders Kerchival King Philip's War land Legree Mary melodrama Metacomet Metamora miners moral myth Nahmeokee narrative nation natives New-York Evening Post nineteenth-century North northern novel offered performance play playwright political popular position present production race readers refer reform reinforce response rhetoric role romantic sachem savage scene Scraggs sentimental Sheridan slave system slavery social society South southern stage story Stowe Stowe's sympathy teetotalism temperance temperance movement theatre theatrical Topsy tradition Uncle Tom Uncle Tom's Cabin Union villain virtually virtue vision Wampanoag Washingtonian West woman writer York