"FLYING BY THE SEAT OF OUR PANTS": THE POLITICS OF PARTICIPATORY MUSICAL THEATER IN THE 21ST CENTURY BURNED-OVER DISTRICT
Date of Award
August 2019
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Social Sciences
Advisor(s)
John S. Burdick
Keywords
aesthetics, ethics, everyday, participation, performance art, public policy
Subject Categories
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Abstract
Activists and scholars have argued for the last half-century about the role of art - especially participatory art - in transforming spectators and participants into active citizens. What is surprising about these debates is that they are often disconnected from detailed, ground-level, systematic empirical investigations. This dissertation is an effort to provide just such a grounded investigation, by seeking to discover the effects that involvement in participatory, oppositional musical theatre actually has on participants’ political sentiments and practices. Adopting an ethnographic approach, I seek to move away from abstract political theory and closer to the everyday perspectives of the participants, artists, and activists themselves. A key finding of this dissertation is that through this approach it becomes possible to discover the political messiness of participant perspectives, including views and practices that some may find surprising.
Access
SURFACE provides description only. Full text may be available to ProQuest subscribers. Please ask your Librarian for assistance.
Recommended Citation
Stanisic, Gordana N/A, ""FLYING BY THE SEAT OF OUR PANTS": THE POLITICS OF PARTICIPATORY MUSICAL THEATER IN THE 21ST CENTURY BURNED-OVER DISTRICT" (2019). Dissertations - ALL. 1081.
https://surface.syr.edu/etd/1081