'The Wizard of Oz' to 'Wicked': Trajectory of American Myth
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FROM 'THE WIZARD OF OZ' TO 'WICKED': TRAJECTORY OF AMERICAN MYTH Alissa Burger A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2009 Committee: Ellen Berry, Advisor Gene S. Trantham Graduate Faculty Representative Don McQuarie Piya Pal Lapinski © 2009 Alissa Burger All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Ellen Berry, Advisor The Wizard of Oz story has been omnipresent in American popular culture since the first publication of L. Frank Baum’s children’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at the dawn of the twentieth century. Ever since, filmmakers, authors, and theatre producers have continued to return to Oz over and over again. However, while literally hundreds of adaptations of the Wizard of Oz story abound, a handful of transformations are particularly significant in exploring discourses of American myth and culture: L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900); MGM’s classic film The Wizard of Oz (1939); Sidney Lumet’s film The Wiz (1978); Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995); and Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s Broadway musical Wicked (2003). This project critiques theories of fixed or prescriptive American myth, instead developing a theory of American myth as active, performative and even, at times, participatory, achieved through discussion of the fluidity of text and performance, built on Diana Taylor’s theory of the archive and the repertoire. By approaching text and performance as fluid rather than fixed, this dissertation facilitates an interdisciplinary consideration of these works, bringing children’s literature, film, popular fiction, theatre, and music together in a theoretically multifaceted approach to the Wizard of Oz narrative, its many transformations, and its lasting significance within American culture. In the process of addressing these myths, this dissertation explores themes consistent within these five versions of the Wizard of Oz narrative, looking at the shifting significance and iv representations of gender, race, home, and magic in these works. These themes have been central to establishing the national identity of the citizen throughout American history; as such, their popular representations tend to reflect the values espoused by the surrounding culture at the time of creation. Therefore, a close examination of the recurring themes in these five versions of the Wizard of Oz story provides significant insight into the negotiation of these issues, their representations, and their corresponding moments in American culture. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people have contributed encouragement and feedback at various stages of this project. I would like to thank the stellar Bowling Green State University American Culture Studies and English department faculty who have provided guidance on my earlier research and writing on the Wizard of Oz narrative in various graduate seminars, including Ellen Berry, Bill Albertini, and Vicki Patraka. Don McQuarie and William Emerson offered early encouragement and criticism on the first three chapters as well. I would also like to thank the faculty of the Futures of American Studies seminar, including Don Pease, Eric Lott, and Cindy Katz, who expressed interest and provided critical feedback on my project. In addition, Colleen Boggs was a fantastic workshop leader and I thank her and my fellow seminarians for their insight and inspiration. In addition, I have had the opportunity to share my work and find publication venues for segments of this project. I thank Phyllis Frus and Christy Williams for including me in their collection on Transformations: Classical Texts and Popular Culture, and for their excellent editorial guidance. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Jennifer Garlen and Anissa Graham for affording me and The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz a place in their collection on Kermit Culture: Perspectives on Jim Henson’s Muppets. I would also like to thank my wonderful committee: Don McQuarie, Piya Lapinksi, Gene Trantham, and especially Ellen Berry, my advisor, mentor, and friend. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their unending love and support, especially my parents, who have always told me I can do anything I set my mind to, and Jason, Buddy, Zooey, and Tommy, who drive me crazy and keep me sane. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER I. REINVENTING AMERICAN MYTH ......................................................... 5 CHAPTER II. BETWEEN TEXT AND PERFORMANCE ................................................ 41 CHAPTER III. WICKED AND WONDERFUL WOMEN................................................. 70 CHAPTER IV. RACE, HISTORY, AND REPRESENTATION ........................................ 114 CHAPTER V. HOME SWEET HOME ................................................................................ 158 CHAPTER VI. MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT ................................................................... 201 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 246 BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................................. 251 1 INTRODUCTION The Wizard of Oz is a quintessentially American story that authors, filmmakers, and theatrical producers have been retelling and reinventing since the first publication of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900, which is widely recognized as the first uniquely American fairy tale. Telling of the thrill of adventure, the comfort of home, and the journey of self-discovery, the Wizard of Oz narrative remains just as relevant today as at the time of its first writing. However, the meaning of this story, on its surface a simple children’s fairy tale, remains elusive and has been subject to multiple conflicting interpretations over the years. As a result, the Wizard of Oz narrative is more than a transparent children’s tale, a classic film, or a familiar storyline. Reimaginations of the Wizard of Oz story have been articulated since the original book’s publication, occuring at intersections of old and new, returning to traditional notions of identity and American myth, combining these well-known tropes with revisions and new elements to keep the narrative compelling and contemporary. Five especially significant incarnations of the Wizard of Oz story are Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), the MGM film The Wizard of Oz (1939), Sidney Lumet’s African-American film musical The Wiz (1978), Gregory Maguire’s popular novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995), and Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s hit Broadway musical Wicked (2003). A close consideration of these works, in tandem with thematic explorations of gender, race, home, and magic, provides an understanding of the myriad negotiations of American identity within these revisions over the past one hundred years. In the process of addressing these myths, this dissertation explores several cultural themes within these 2 five versions of the Wizard of Oz narrative, looking at the shifting significance and representations of gender, race, home, and magic in these works. These issues have been of central significance in constructing the ideal American citizen and as a result, a close examination of the recurring themes in these five versions of the Wizard of Oz story provides significant insight into the negotiation of these issues, their representations, and their corresponding moments in American culture. However, these transformations of the familiar Wizard of Oz tale do more than reflect the values of their surrounding societies. Instead, the negotiation of this canonical text provides fertile space for struggling with these issues, serving as an indicator of the conflicts preoccupying American culture at each unique sociohistorical moment, signaling tensions and anxieties in the surrounding society that cultural producers and consumers address through not only lived experience, but also through literature, film, music, and other engagement with popular culture. As such, The Wiz addresses tensions in the aftermath of the Civil Rights movement and Broadway’s Wicked focuses on a tyrannical and manipulative ruler, playing to packed theatres in immediate concurrence with a period of political unrest in America. Not only do these multiple versions of the Wizard of Oz narrative reflect the significance of the themes of gender, race, home, and magic within American culture, but they also speak to the struggles surrounding their highly-contested meanings. As a result, the reinvention of the Wizard of Oz narrative is a useful tool for considering shifting notions of American identity and the negotiation of these central themes within the discourse of what it means to be American. This dissertation is arranged in two main sections: theoretical and thematic. In the first section, Chapter One provides an overview of the discourse of the American 3 myth/symbol school and reinvents this outdated theory through engagement with conversations surrounding the fairy tale, the figure of the female hero, and the role of dynamic revision in productively addressing American myth. This chapter concludes with a discussion of the use of this updated theory of American myth and its specific applicability to the Wizard of