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IN THE FLESH: THE REPRESENTATION OF BURLESQUE THEATRE IN
AMERICAN ART AND VISUAL CULTURE
by
Jennifer Munro Miller
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(ART HISTORY)
December 2010
Copyright 2010 Jennifer Munro Miller
Object Description
| Title | In the flesh: the representation of burlesque theatre in American art and visual culture |
| Author | Miller, Jennifer Munro |
| Author email | jennifmm@usc.edu; jennifermmiller@me.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Art History |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2010-12 |
| Date submitted | 2010 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2010-09-16 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Meyer, Richard E. |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Holo, Selma Schwartz, Vanessa R. |
| Abstract | “In the Flesh: The Representation of Burlesque Theatre in American Art and Visual Culture” is a study of representations of American burlesque theatre from 1868 to the mid-twentieth century. Recent interest in burlesque, both scholarly and in the form of the nostalgic neo-burlesque movement, has centered on its transgressive, camp potential. While this potential is apparent in images of burlesque, it is diffused. The display of the female body became the featured draw of American burlesque theatre in 1868, and by the later decades of the nineteenth century, burlesque was considered a low theatrical form for a mostly male audience. Representations of burlesque engage issues of high and low, art and obscenity, as well as spectator and spectacle. Late nineteenth century images of burlesque and its female performers are characterized by exaggerated female display, exotic allusions, humor, and a carefully mediated tension between female performer and her male audience. These elements persisted in burlesque representations even as the theatrical genre evolved and declined. Diverse images including theatrical advertisements, popular media illustrations and photographs, and paintings by canonical artists reflected and helped constitute burlesque performance as sexually suggestive beyond the boundaries of conventional behavior and taste. In visual depictions, the parody and caricature that are part of the literary and theatrical tradition of burlesque are evident in inversions of gender expectations and pointed references to class distinctions. By the beginning of the twentieth century, American artists interested in urban spectacle were looking to popular entertainments as subjects for their work. The interest in burlesque as a subject from artists such as Reginald Marsh, Thomas Hart Benton, Edward Hopper, Mabel Dwight, and Stuyvesant Van Veen coincided with the increasingly salacious display of the female body on stage.; As a setting, burlesque afforded an opportunity to reveal the artificiality of glamour, to observe and depict the viewing of a female performance of nudity, and to draw attention to the relationship between spectator and spectacle. The endurance of the burlesque aesthetic that emerged in the later half of the nineteenth century demonstrates its currency as a means of exploring the display of the female body at the borders of high and low culture and art and obscenity. |
| Keyword | American burlesque theatre; late 19th century American visual culture; early 20th century American realist art; representations of burlesque queens; representations of performing women |
| Geographic subject (country) | USA |
| Coverage date | 1868/1950 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3452 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Miller, Jennifer Munro |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@dots.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Miller-4023 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume40/etd-Miller-4023.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@dots.usc.edu |
| Full text | IN THE FLESH: THE REPRESENTATION OF BURLESQUE THEATRE IN AMERICAN ART AND VISUAL CULTURE by Jennifer Munro Miller A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (ART HISTORY) December 2010 Copyright 2010 Jennifer Munro Miller |
