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Reflections on the American Dream in the Views and Songs of Bruce Springsteen Khaled Chouana

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Reflections on the American Dream in the Views and Songs of Bruce Springsteen Khaled Chouana Reflections on the American Dream in the Views and Songs of Bruce Springsteen Khaled Chouana To cite this version: Khaled Chouana. Reflections on the American Dream in the Views and Songs of Bruce Springsteen. Dirasat: Human and Social Sciences, 2016, 43 (3), pp.2507-2518. hal-02107781 HAL Id: hal-02107781 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02107781 Submitted on 12 Jul 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivatives| 4.0 International License Dirasat, Human and Social Sciences, Volume 43, No. 3, 2016 Reflections on the American Dream in the Views and Songs of Bruce Springsteen Khaled Chouana* ABSTRACT When promoting his album Wrecking Ball in Paris in 2012, Bruce Springsteen told the journalists that his work had always been about judging the distance between the American reality and the American Dream. This study explores one major myth of the United States, the American Dream, in some songs of Bruce Springsteen. It also tries to fill the gap between the dream and real life in the U.S. today. Keywords: American Dream, Bruce Springsteen, American Reality, Immigrants, Ambivalence, Authenticity. Introduction Perhaps, our conception of America may be ambiguous and misleading. Our interest in the American life from a When promoting his album Wrecking Ball in Paris, on cultural perspective may blind us from perceiving its February 16th, 2012, Bruce Springsteen told the reality. Our understanding of America is linked to our journalists “My work has always been about judging the cultural background. We think we know this country distance between American reality and the American because our standards and beliefs are shaped by the Dream- how far is that at any moment?” (Zimny, 2012). different trends of its culture: we watch its movies, read Springsteen’s comment on the American Dream suggests its literature, listen to its rock n’ roll music, study its that he explores the possibilities of fulfilling it in the basic myths, visit its cities and landscapes and eat its shadow of the American reality. The American Dream food. Yet, we have no clue about the American reality can be summarized in the following statement: anyone unless we settle there as citizens, and even so, it can only can achieve prosperity and success through hard work, be a partial view. courage and good opportunities. However, in trying to From a philosophical standpoint, American pursue the dream, people may be disappointed in the fact humanities scholars analyze various twenty-first century of the American reality that may disenchant them of their American character types and claim that they struggle idealistic hopes and stereotyped expectations. Yet, with their human condition. For Deardorff, fulfilling the fulfilling the dream is possible. Consider Springsteen’s American Dream is a “basic human condition of the artistic as well as financial success. He embodies the contemporary age” (Deardorff, 2013: p.37). Lingeman American Dream of the rock n’ roll star which was views the American characters as trying to “escape from epitomized by Elvis Presley. Springsteen started his the awful loneliness of the human condition” (Lingeman, career in the mid 1970’s singing in local New Jersey 1992: p.107). But perhaps these American characters do clubs such as the Stone Pony and the Student Prince, and not struggle with their human condition, rather they then he became an international millionaire rock star. struggle with their American condition. Springsteen We may attempt to judge the distance between the seems to understand this American condition and offers American reality and the American Dream as Springsteen some insights into real life in America. does in his songs. However, the task seems rather The purpose of this article is to explore one major complex and difficult. How is real life in America? Are myth of the United States, the American Dream in the all Americans sharing the dream in their country? views and songs of New Jersey native rock singer Bruce Springsteen. The article can be helpful for students of American civilization and cultural studies. It gives them * Paul-Valéry University of Montpellier, France. Received on 15/7/2015 and Accepted for Publication on 21/9/2015. some views on the American Dream and the possibilities - 2507 - © 2016 DAR Publishers/The University of Jordan. All Rights Reserved. Reflections on the American … Khaled Chouana of fulfilling it in this contemporary era. Above all, the precisely to imagine a destiny rather than to inherit one; article may help future researchers who are interested in since we have always been, insofar as we are Americans examining the gap between the American culture and real at all, inhabitants of myth rather than history” (ibid: p.5). life in America. Researchers may analyze the very large The study of myths is linked to the field of wide-ranging corpus of documents including popular mythology. Claude Lévi-Strauss’ analysis gives some music, movies, novels, and autobiographies that deal with insights into the contradictions surrounding the smallest the issue of the American Dream and try to reexamine device of mythology which he calls a mytheme. For him, this cultural device within the post-global financial crisis “Myths are still widely interpreted in conflicting ways: as context which makes real life in America for the lower collective dreams, as the outcome of a kind of esthetic class very difficult. Obviously, there is a distance play, or as the basis of ritual” (Lévi-Strauss, 1967: between the American Dream, the promises and hopes of p.208). The American Dream is an abstract concept, a America and the real life of the country. transcendental entity and its perception differs from one The article will present some songs of Bruce person to another. Consequently, people may view it Springsteen that tackle the issue of the American Dream. differently depending on their own experiences and It is a qualitative study that includes some songs and not cultural representations. The American Dream may be all the songs of Springsteen dealing with the topic. The perceived in terms of contradictions. subject will be approached by analyzing the songs of In the field of semiology, the science that deals with Springsteen in order to avoid personal judgments or signs or sign language, the comments of Barthes on opinions. The method consists of deconstructing some myths deserve a deep examination. For him, “The songs of Springsteen that deal with the distance between relation which unites the concept of the myth to its the American Dream and the American reality. The meaning is essentially a relation of deformation. […] The deconstruction process includes an analysis of the lyrics, concept, literally, deforms, but does not abolish the the album covers, the musical instruments and some meaning; a word can perfectly render this contradiction: statements given by Springsteen during shows and it alienates it” (Barthes, 1972: p.121). Barthes considers interviews. First, the American Dream will be briefly myth as a stolen language since its characteristic is “to discussed by giving a definition and a short overview of transform a meaning into form. In other words, myth is this myth. Subsequently, particular focus will be placed always a language-robbery” (ibid: p.131). However, one on analyzing some of Springsteen’s songs that deal with may ask the following: what does the American Dream the issue from both the external viewpoint of the new signify? What are the signifier and the signified of this immigrants and the internal one of the Americans. The ambivalent concept? Is it just a dream or a reality? main goal here is to judge the distance between the Perhaps the American Dream is also a language-robbery. American reality and the American Dream from a The American Dream starts with the creation of the Springsteenian standpoint. Is Springsteen still optimistic United States of America. The Founding Fathers about the United States and its promises? Is the dream established the basis of the concept in one of the most still valid in the twenty-first century America? These are important historical documents of America, the the main issues of this paper. Declaration of Independence. They stated in its preamble that every man has the right to “life, liberty, and the The American Dream: a major myth of the United pursuit of happiness”. In 1931, James Truslow Adams, an States American historian, came up with the phrase American There are numerous definitions of the American Dream in his book The Epic of America. He defines it as Dream. It gives room to different interpretations, and can the “dream of a land in which life should be better and be summarized as a basic philosophy or a set of rules to richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each be followed blindly to achieve a successful life. The according to ability or achievement” (ibid: p.404). But it dream can be considered as one of the basic myths of the must be noted that Adams’s book was published in the United States as well as the Promised Land or the midst of the Great Depression in order to give the Frontier. After all, America was founded on myths as Americans a sense of hope and confidence after their suggested in Greil Marcus’s Mystery Train.
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