Schwartz, Michael S
(2008)
A Matter for Experts: Broadway 1900-1920 and the Rise of the Professional Managerial Class.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Modern theatrical scholars do not generally hold the first two decades of 20th century American drama in high esteem. The received wisdom regarding most of the era under study is that Broadway was primarily a source of frivolous entertainment that bore little or no relation to the turbulent social forces that were shaping America as well as the outside world. Nevertheless, Broadway during the years 1900-1920 both reflected and impacted upon a particularly significant series of social changes—namely, the formation and rise of the Professional Managerial Class, or PMC. This intermediate class, positioned between the workers and the capitalist owners, found its niche and its identity as mental workers preserving capitalist culture, and this emerging class made significant contributions in shaping the modern Broadway theatre. Broadway, in turn, contributed greatly in shaping PMC class identity. Through an examination of plays, actors, reviews, and audience response of the period, and using the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, this document traces both the development of Broadway as a source of modern, "mature" American drama, as well as the development of PMC consciousness and "habitus"—that is, the outward bodily and behavioral display of the unconscious acceptance of class manifestations. In particular, one of the key class problems that both the PMC and Broadway sought to solve was that of "nerves." Nerves plagued the minds of the theatre-going mental workers, and Broadway practitioners tried various strategies to conquer, or at least temporarily mollify, the nerves of the audience. These strategies included the song and dance of musicals, the laughter of comedies and farces, and the therapeutic onstage "talking cures" that reflected the increasing interest in and assimilation of Freudian concepts. By following these symbiotic developments to their climax in the 1920s, the historian discovers that the "birth" of what scholars consider modern American drama is primarily the result of the PMC fulfilling its task of maintaining and preserving capitalist culture.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
|
| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
| Creators | Email | Pitt Username | ORCID  |
|---|
| Schwartz, Michael S | mss25@pitt.edu | MSS25 | |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
29 January 2008 |
| Date Type: |
Completion |
| Defense Date: |
29 November 2007 |
| Approval Date: |
29 January 2008 |
| Submission Date: |
10 November 2007 |
| Access Restriction: |
5 year -- Restrict access to University of Pittsburgh for a period of 5 years. |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Theater Arts |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Broadway; Early 20th Century; habitus; Pierre Bourdieu; PMC; Professional Managerial Class |
| Other ID: |
http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-11102007-235642/, etd-11102007-235642 |
| Date Deposited: |
10 Nov 2011 20:04 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Nov 2016 13:51 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9620 |
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