Hornung, Anne-Sophie
Dissertationsthema: "Recovery, Revision, Revival: The Irish, Irishness, and American Musical Theatre in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries." (Arbeitstitel)
Kontaktadresse an der Universität Würzburg:
Neuphilologisches Institut
Anglistik/Amerikanistik
Am Hubland
97074 Würzburg
E-Mail an Frau Hornung
Erstbetreuerin: Prof. Dr. Ina Bergmann
Zweitbetreuende:
Prof. Dr. MaryAnn Snyder-Körber
Prof. Dr. Nassim Winnie Balestrini (Univ. Graz)
Klasse in der Graduiertenschule: "Philosophie, Sprachen, Künste"
Promotion in der Graduiertenschule ab SS 2025.
Abstract:
Since the first European settlement of the New World in the seventeenth century, the Irish transatlantic contributions to American society and culture have been both myriad and influential. This thesis aims to highlight their mark on the genesis of early American musical theater, spanning from the mid-nineteenth century until the 1920s. While this period signifies both a critical time in (Irish) American history, marked by national unrest, turmoil, and xenophobia, as well as in the gradual formation of an American musical theater tradition, the Irish prominence has long been banned to the sidelines. Based on these temporal and cultural interrelations, it will be the aim to develop a conceptual framework that, firstly, investigates the formal and stylistic innovation that Irish Americans brought to the genre of American musical theater and, secondly, highlights the role of this stage as a space of negotiation for identity and cultural politics, underscoring the sizeable Irish imprint on this form of American mass entertainment. For the first time, a digitalized corpus of the hitherto scattered printed works and source material of specific libraries and archives will be made available. As a recovery, revision, and revival of a largely dormant musical theater history, this study will further contribute to the Irishʼs historic and cultural visibility, thereby rendering a more diverse and authentic interpretation of the American cultural canon.
