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Abraham Lincoln in the Twenty-First Century

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Abraham Lincoln in the Twenty-First Century Universität Duisburg-Essen Fakultät für Geisteswissenschaften Institut für Anglophone Studien POPULAR MEDIA MEMORY: ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doktor der Philosophie (Dr. phil.) der Fakultät für Geisteswissenschaften der Universität Duisburg-Essen vorgelegt von JÖRN BENZINGER geboren in Mülheim an der Ruhr wohnhaft in Essen im Mai 2016 Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Josef Raab und Prof. Dr. Barbara Buchenau, Fakultät für Geisteswissenschaften, Institut für Anglophone Studien, Universität Duisburg-Essen Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 28. März 2017 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................. iii LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................. iv LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................... iv 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1 1.1. On the Cultural Significance of Abraham Lincoln ............................................. 2 1.2. State of Research ................................................................................................ 6 1.1.1 Lincoln’s Lifetime ......................................................................................... 7 1.1.2 On Lincoln’s Afterlife ................................................................................. 15 1.3 Focus and Goals: My Thesis ............................................................................ 21 1.4 Structure ........................................................................................................... 24 2. POPULAR MEDIA MEMORY ..................................................................................... 26 2.1 Social Memory Studies as a Framework of Medial Representations of Lincoln ............................................................................................................. 27 2.1.1 Basic Concepts of Social Memory Studies: Halbwachs, Warburg, Assmann, and Nora ...................................................................................... 28 2.1.2 Recent Concepts and Debates ...................................................................... 34 2.1.3 The Mediality of Social Memories ............................................................... 44 2.2 Outlining “the Popular”: Towards a Working Definition of the Popular ........ 52 2.3 Popular Media Memory: The Interface of Popular Forms of Cultural Expressions as Media of Collective Memories ................................................ 58 2.4 Text Corpus: Selections of Popular Media Artifacts as Objects of Study ....... 61 3. DEVELOPMENT OF REPRESENTATIONS FROM 1865 TO 1999.......................... 64 4. ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY ................................. 96 4.1 The Eulogized Lincoln: Tributes to His Lifetime – Great Emancipator, Savior of the Union, Man of the People, Honest Abe ............. 138 4.2 The Re-Invented Lincoln: Abe in Modern Contexts – Role Model, Representative, and Fighting New Enemies .................................................. 190 4.3 The Demystified Lincoln: Object of Ridicule and Deconstruction ............... 248 5. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................ 272 6. APPENDICES .............................................................................................................. 278 7. WORKS CITED ........................................................................................................... 292 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation could not have been completed without the help of so many great people. I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr. Josef Raab for offering me to become one of his doctoral students and for supporting me with his advice and encouragement throughout the years. Furthermore, I highly appreciate Dr. Barbara Buchenau’s commitment as a second assessor and I thank her for accepting my inquiry. I must not forget Ines Fricke-Groenewold, Administrative Assistant to Dr. Raab, who always cheered me up when I was on campus, and my fellow students at the Department of Anglophone Studies. Thank you for your help. To my family and friends, I wish to offer my most heartfelt thanks: for your support, believe, understanding, bolstering, love, and caring. Thank you! This is for you, Ela. I love you from the bottom of my heart and I would have never accomplished this without you. iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 “The Civil War” .................................................................................................. 203 Figure 2 “Abe Lincoln Riding a Grizzly” ......................................................................... 204 Figure 3 “The Problem with Quotes” ................................................................................ 205 Figure 4 “Not Everything You Read” ............................................................................... 206 Figure 5 “Don’t Believe Everything You Read” ............................................................... 206 Figure 6 “Here I am” ......................................................................................................... 207 Figure 7 “Bitches Love Me“ .............................................................................................. 207 Figure 8 “I Like Big Butts” ............................................................................................... 208 Figure 9 “I Didn’t Free the Slaves to Hear about Your Bullshit” ..................................... 209 Figure 10 “Abroham Lincoln“ ........................................................................................... 232 Figure 11 “Baronvonawsome’s Abroham Lincoln” .......................................................... 232 Figure 12 “That Is So” ....................................................................................................... 233 Figure 13 “Boombox” ....................................................................................................... 233 Figure 14 “Hipster Abraham Lincoln” .............................................................................. 234 LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Collective Memory according to Assmann ............................................................. 31 Table 2 Comparison between Posner’s Model of Culture and My Notion of Collective Memory ................................................................................................. 51 Table 3 Popular Media Memory .......................................................................................... 61 1 1. INTRODUCTION 150 years after his death, Abraham Lincoln is still an integral part of U.S. American culture and his omnipresence becomes apparent in widely varied shapes: from his portrait on the current five-dollar bill to his name embellishing the hoods of thousands of luxury cars, from the stage show “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln” in Disneyland to the integration of the Lincoln Memorial into the plot of House of Cards. Two special occasions in 2009 reinforced Lincoln’s ubiquity further. The bicentennial anniversary of his birth was lavishly celebrated with festivities all over the country and Barack Obama frequently referred to the sixteenth president in the context of his own inauguration into the highest political office in the United States of America, e.g., by swearing on Lincoln’s bible and mirroring his historical train route when traveling to Washington, D.C. Thus, it appears more appropriate and plausible than ever before to replenish the already extensive field of research about the Kentucky-born statesman by adding a new perspective: Abraham Lincoln in Popular Media Memory. Whereas countless polls have been conducted and numerous official appraisals and portrayals put forth and analyzed, it is the main goal of this study to offer an analysis of Lincoln representations in twenty-first century popular media and present his various places within the concept of popular media memory. The study of fictional visual media such as films, TV series, shows, commercials, cartoons, animated series as well as Internet comics, memes, and music videos will reveal the protagonist of this dissertation as an iridescent, multi-faceted personality. The analyses of 48 objects resulted in a classification into three main categories, thereby mirroring different potential functions of these representations: The Eulogized Lincoln refers to depictions glorifying character traits and political achievements of his lifetime; the Re- Invented Lincoln includes representations putting the former president into new contexts, making him a spokesperson or counselor for various matters in modern times, or having him fight new conflicts; and the Demystified Lincoln has the sixteenth president as an object of teasing, mocking, and ridicule. This introduction is to provide more room to intensify the already broached aspects, such as emphasizing Lincoln’s cultural significance in today’s America in order to explain and justify my choice of him as the central figure of this study or illustrating Barack Obama’s special relationship to him in more detail. Furthermore, an overview on the current state of 2 research is not only supposed to illustrate Lincoln’s present academic pertinence. By dividing the
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