Hornung, Anne-Sophie
Dissertation topic: "Recovery, Revision, Revival: The Irish, Irishness, and American Musical Theatre in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries." (working title)
Contact address at the University of Würzburg:
Institute of Modern Philology
English/American Studies
Am Hubland
97074 Würzburg
E-mail to Mrs Hornung
First supervisor: Prof. Dr Ina Bergmann
Second supervisor:
Prof. Dr Nassim Winnie Balestrini (Univ. Graz)
Class in the Graduate School: "Philosophy, Languages, Arts"
Doctorate in the Graduate School from 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 theatre, 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 theatre 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 theatre 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 digitalised 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 theatre history, this study will further contribute to the Irishʼs historical and cultural visibility, thereby rendering a more diverse and authentic interpretation of the American cultural canon.
