"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.

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