Postmodern Messiah: a Critical Ethnography of Elvis Presley As a Site of Performance
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1997 Postmodern Messiah: A Critical Ethnography of Elvis Presley as a Site of Performance. Daniel Weaver Heaton Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Heaton, Daniel Weaver, "Postmodern Messiah: A Critical Ethnography of Elvis Presley as a Site of Performance." (1997). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 6489. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/6489 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. 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POSTMODERN MESSIAH: A CRITICAL ETHNOGRAPHY OF ELVIS PRESLEY AS A SITE OF PERFORMANCE A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Speech Communication by Daniel Weaver Heaton A.A., Anderson College, 1984 B.A., Carson-Newman College, 1987 M.A., Louisiana State University, 1990 August 1997 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9808746 UMI Microform 9808746 Copyright 1997, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEDICATION In memory of my sister, Aprile ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all those who helped, encouraged, and inspired me throughout this process. First, I would like to thank my advisor. Dr. Michael Bowman, for making time to work with me and for always believing that I knew more than I thought I did. Next, I would like to thank my committee members: Dr. Mary Frances HopKins for agreeing to stay on my committee even though she retired; Dr. Ruth Laurion Bowman for being a most supportive and positive role model for me; Dr. Kenneth Zagacki, for insisting that his students always try to be "provocative"; and Dr. Gaines Foster of the Department of History, whom I do not know. I would also like to thank the many Elvis fans and funs who participated in the performances with me. I would especially like to thank my "Elvis Week" friends, Tracy Stephenson, Kathy Whitlock Owens, Kerry Owens, Christa Thacker, Patrick Johnson, Leigh Anne Howard, and Jim Patterson for going "into the field” with me. My highest praise and thanks go to Dr. Sharon Croft, who is not only my fiancee, but also my "in-house" advisor and editor. I would not have completed this project without her love, support, and willingness to read my rantings. Uh-jah-wuh-jah-nuhboo. Finally, I thank my parents, Earl Cleve and Johnnie Weaver Heaton for their belief, encouragement, patience, and boundless love. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION............................................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.........................................................................................iii ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................v CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION...............................................................................1 2. SITING ELVIS: POWER, PLAY, POSTMODERN IDENTITY ............................................................................ 32 3. VIGIL VIRGINS: THE ETHNOGRAPHER REMEMBERS.......................................................................60 4. ELVIS'S EYES ARE SMILING OR TOUR: A LURE OR LIE?.................................................. 108 5. TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS IN A FLASH: SOUVENIRS, "SNAPSHOTS," AND SHOPPING . 154 6. CONCLUSION...............................................................................222 REFERENCE LIST ...............................................................................................247 BROCHURE............................................................................................ see Pocket VITA ......................................................................................................................260 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT In this study I used a critical ethnographic approach to investigate Elvis as a site of performance where cultural identity, authority and representation are contextualized within the cultural practices of fans, people who love Elvis, and funs, people who do not love Elvis, but still elect to use Elvis as the basis for their cultural performances. I argued that fans and funs use performance as the agency of postmodern identity construction. I explored three performance events in which both fans and funs participated. Additionally, I examined the relationship of power and play between and within fan and fun culture. I positioned fan and fun activities as cultural performances that enact political ideologies supported by members of fan and fun cultures. I focused on fans and funs as performers who enacted material, verbal, and processual texts. I detailed these performances in three case studies. In the first case study, written as a narrative, I discussed the performance of the Candlelight Vigil. I described the Vigil as a ritual and discussed how fans/funs use the performance to enact power relations within and between each culture. I also considered how performance of the Vigil aids postmodern identity construction for fans and funs. In the next case study, written as a screenplay, I critiqued the performance of the Graceland Mansion tour. I discussed how fans and v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. funs are special types of tourists who use the tour context to further their own cultural identities and agendas. Finally, in the last case study I explored the critical implications of shopping for souvenirs as performance. I wrote the first part of the study as a brochure to highlight the rhetoric of objects featured at Graceland Plaza. The second part of the chapter I wrote as a scrapbook of "snapshots” to implicate my own autobiographical experience of shopping at Graceland Crossings in the same context as popular and academic discourse about souvenirs and shopping. I attempted to draw the connection between myself and fan/fun performances of shopping at both venues to determine if shopping was an empowering or disempowering performance of postmodern identity. vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION "O powerful western fallen star! 0 shades of night—O moody tearful night! O great star disappeared. Walt Whitman, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd” "Elvis could no longer sneer and mean it. It was time to freeze the legend." David Israel, The Washington Star "The truth of the matter is, that Elvis’s pants were filled, and the women knew it. And I think, as much as anything else, this is what heralded his success." Raymond Browne, Bowling Greene State University "Elvis, whatever else may be said about him, was an experience." John Wasserman, San Francisco Chronicle Elvis Aaron Presley, son of Vernon