American Studies Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2740
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Item "Get Dressed Up For The End Of The World!": The Reinvention of the Elder Goth Subculture During a Time of Crisis(2024) Bush, Leah J.; Corbin Sies, Mary; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation is an ethnographic examination of relationships between subcultural identity and Gothic social worlds in the Elder Goth subculture in Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Formed in Britain in the late 1970s, the Goth subculture is characterized by a distinct morbid aesthetic and an overwhelming emphasis on the color black. The subculture retains a relatively high number of Elder Goths who participate in the subculture beyond their youth. This interdisciplinary project draws from the lifespan perspective of age studies and aspects of performance studies and queer utopian theory. Individual identities and Gothic communities are built and sustained through subculturally specific fashion and embodied practices at nightclubs, outdoor gatherings, and the phenomenon of virtual streaming dance nights which emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project also considers how meaning is made in subcultural places. Elder Goths draw on the subculture’s embrace of dichotomies in life, commitment to adaptation, and deepen their investment with the subculture at transitional points in their lives. Subculture is thus a fluid process of worldmaking which unfolds over the life course. This dissertation underscores the power of agency in making new and better worlds.Item Subjacent Culture, Orthogonal Community: An Ethnographic Analysis of an On-Line Buffy the Vampire Slayer Fan Community(2013) Ali, Asim; Caughey, John L; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation presents an ethnographic analysis of the community of fans of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer whose members frequented the online linear posting board known as The Bronze. Buffy originally aired from 1997 until 2003, but the community that formed at the official Buffy fan site in 1997 continues on in real life and on line, having survived the end of Buffy and the closure of all three of its official posting boards. This study uses an interdisciplinary combination of textual analysis and ethnographic techniques (interviews, participant observation, autoethnography, cyberethnography) to ascertain the importance, relevance, and meaning of The Bronze community to its members, known as Bronzers. I argue that the nature of the linear posting board allowed Bronzers to form a unique and long-lived community by using The Bronze in creative and imaginative ways. In particular, language--to some degree appropriated from Buffy--was used by Bronzers to write a better world for themselves on line. Hence, the community is built on (and maintained by) language that is used in an unusually postmodern manner. As a group, Bronzers tend to be highly educated, literary, and artistic. To Bronzers, much of Buffy's appeal was its emotional realism and imaginative depth. Unusually for television, these elements were combined with strong female leading roles, a cast of bookish and somewhat countercultural characters, and a foregrounding of emotionality and interpersonal relationships. Bronzers were drawn to these aspects of Buffy--which formed its "gothic aesthetic"--and in turn created their own somewhat countercultural community, one that came to reflect their own close ties and emotional attachments. I argue that The Bronze community exists subjacent to mainstream cultural formations, and orthogonal to real life communities. Using this framework, a number of implications emerge for computer-mediated communication in general, including an explanation for the prevalence of hostility in online communication. Furthermore, when situated in its broader context, The Bronze can be seen as a meager palliative to the damaging effects of contemporary post-industrial capitalism, one that nonetheless illumines the brightly stultifying commonplaces that lead people to seek shelter in dimly-lit imagined spaces.Item Three American Artists at Midlife: Negotiating the Space Between Amateur and Professional Status(2007-05-03) Hummel, Michael John; Caughey, John L; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examines the life histories of three creative artists who are negotiating the space between amateur and professional status. Using John L. Caughey's "cultural traditions model" in conjunction with other recent life history theory and ethnographic participant-observation techniques, I have created a cultural biography for each of my three informants that details how their artistic identity is influenced by the many cultural traditions they interact with, including national, ethnic, professional, educational, aesthetic, and spiritual traditions. Each informant took entrepreneurial steps to support their artistic identity shortly before the inception of this longitudinal study which follows the ups and downs of the realization of their creative vision over a period of several years. Additionally, in keeping with current ethnographic and life history practice, I discuss my own background as an artist and how that influenced the study, and I reflect on trends in life history and new ethnographic writing and how they impinge upon research on artists. I argue that there is a tension between external and internal identity for artists, of which my informants were well aware. As I discuss this tension, I critique the work of Stebbins and Becker on artists, arguing that Stebbins' otherwise useful definitions of "amateurs" and "professionals" are ultimately too rigid, as my own informants often defy his categorizations both subjectively and objectively. I then suggest that Becker's "art worlds" approach is important in understanding the infrastructure needed for creative artists to flourish, but that it too neglects the significance of subjectivity and does not recognize that key individuals serve as "hubs" of activity. I conclude that the individuals in my study made use of more flexible, related cultural traditions to maintain their internal artistic identities while establishing external ones. Having reevaluated their lives as they entered midlife, they later experienced a "legacy reassessment" following the realization of their original vision. Finally, I conclude that despite outside pressures that challenged and modified the subjective experience of their artistic identity, each of my informants embraced art as a "transcendent" frame which can integrate all other cultural traditions.Item Shifting Whiteness: A Life History Approach to U.S. White Parents of "Biracial" or Black" Children(2005-08-04) Woodfork, Joshua Carter; Caughey, John L.; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This research examines how the experiences of parenting ?biracial? or ?black? children have affected the beliefs of white parents who have published books and essays regarding their situations. The participating parents claim that because of their relationship with their children of African descent their self-understandings, including their own sense of their racial identity, are altered. They now speak of themselves as ?not quite white,? ?black by proxy,? or as a ?bridge? (between the races). My dissertation, ?Shifting Whiteness: A Life History Approach to U.S. White Parents of ?Biracial? or ?Black? Children,? explores how such parents talk about and conceptualize their experiences, including the implications of these parents? claims of racial identity transformation. This dissertation posits that the white parents? shift in attitudes and beliefs reflects their vivid engagement with the racism and racial experiences that their children endure. The discord between the parents? claim of racial transformation and their continued benefiting from white privilege is also examined. Consideration of the parents? shifts provides a better understanding of racial beliefs and transformations at the individual, micro-level, which contributes to society?s general knowledge about the conception of race. Understanding white parents? decisions to write about their identity transformations as?to use Michael Omi and Howard Winant?s (1994) phrase?a ?racial project,? I investigate its aims and limits, exploring which racial projects are presented by this group of U.S. white parents of biracial and black children. John L. Caughey?s (1994) approach to how individuals operate with ?cultural traditions? and ideas of ?border crossing? also provide theoretical frameworks. Tools of analysis include ethnographic life history methods, textual analysis, critical race theory, and intersectional analysis. My research method involves complementing a close reading of the writings of these authors that are white and parents with qualitative ethnographic life history interviews that gather detailed information from each of these individuals. I treat their publications together with my transcribed interviews as case studies through which I compare and contrast the similarities and differences in the belief changes and shifting that these informants have undergone, as well as their current constructions of race.Item Nisei Samurai: Culture and Agency in Three Japanese American Lives(2005-04-20) Kase, Toyoshi; Finkelstein, Barbara; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of dissertation: NISEI SAMURAI: CULTURE AND AGENCY IN THREE JAPANESE AMERICAN LIVES Toyoshi Kase, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation directed by: Professor Barbara Finkelstein Education Policy and Leadership, College of Education This dissertation, based upon interviews and representation, explores three lives of second generation Japanese Americans and reveals the existence of real cultural complexities among them as well as some of the diverse forms that cross-cultural adaptation might take. Their lives provide a window through which to explore processes of cross-cultural adaptation. These nisei were born and raised on U.S. soil, grew up in a deeply discriminatory society, lived through intractable war, and were deeply and simultaneously connected to Japanese traditions at home and the larger American society. In their experiences, these three lives reveal the continuing interplay of dual cultures but, at the same time, reveal the variety of its forms. All three were invariably steeped in the past through issei parents, actively engaged in an assessment of the present, and inspiringly cast toward the future. In their histories, they were plunged into formidable reality where they acted on the present now by transforming the past as meaningfully usable to their current concern for future imperatives. Throughout this research I will employ one basic paradigm as I explore the interactive relationship between humans and society--human agents as actors and actresses over social demands and forces. The assumption of human agency does not lead to the conclusion that the history of Japanese Americans is a great success story in the face of adversity. It does not portray people as powerless victims of a harsh environment. Rather, this is a study of Japanese American development that pays close attention to the lived human experiences of these nisei samurai moving toward new opportunities and challenges. The ultimate power to determine one's own meaning of being relies upon humans as agents, notwithstanding the power of unalterable circumstances. People are not mindless beings whose actions and reaction have no meaning or bearing on the capacity of renewal. I, then, draw on an anthropological notion of "bricolage" to re-visit their experiences. These nisei of bricolage read or used--or re-read and re-used--a debilitating cultural situation, assigning to it their own meaning and consuming it to their own sense-making.Item "HUNGRY TO SEE OURSELVES REFLECTED": IDENTITY, REPRESENTATION AND BLACK FEMALE SPECTATORSHIP(2004-10-12) George, Eva Marie; Parks, Sheri L; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)While much has been written about the portrayals of Black women in popular culture, scholars have observed that little attention is paid to the experiences of Black women as cultural consumers. This analysis of Black female spectatorship examines theories related to this experience and the various relationships individuals may have with media. This study sheds light on the ways Black women's spectatorship is shaped by gender, race, class and sexual orientation. Through qualitative methods, we hear the voices of Black women in the Washington, D.C. area reflecting on various forms of popular culture, particularly film. Some of the media women responded to in this study include Waiting to Exhale, The Best Man, Jungle Fever, among others. Responses from a focus group, on-on-one interviews and questionnaires provide evidence of the ways in which Black women engage in multiple relationships with images they see in the media. Ultimately, many of the African American women in this study disregard negative images of Black women and purposely choose types of media that sustain their sense of self and help them maintain a positive identity.