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Post-Secular Musicals in a Post-Truth World
- Author(s):
- Jake Johnson (see profile)
- Date:
- 2019
- Group(s):
- American Musicological Society, Music and Sound
- Subject(s):
- Musical theater, Religious thought, United States, Mormons, Theater and society, Theater, American drama
- Item Type:
- Book chapter
- Tag(s):
- Post-Truth, post-secular, american musical theater, Book of Mormon, Leonard Bernstein, American religious thought, Mormon studies, Theatre and society, American theatre
- Permanent URL:
- http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/vdr1-c105
- Abstract:
- In this chapter, I make two interconnected observations. I first consider how musicals inhabit and promote a 'post-truth' worldview similar to those reflected in current populist resurgences throughout the West. I argue that it is musical theater's penchant for the unreal that in recent decades has given it traction within both secular, liberalized communities and fundamentalist religious ones. Further, as an important point of confluence between these groups, contemporary musicals may help open a space for constructive dialogue among people with increasingly disparate worldview. Second, I use two musicals--Leonard Bernstein's Mass and the 2011 Broadway hit The Book of Mormon--to build a framework for understanding how contemporary musicals hold in tension secular ideals and belief or faith, in a way that celebrates the current post-secular desire to use religious optimism to mitigate secular pragmatism.
- Metadata:
- xml
- Published as:
- Book chapter
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 3 years ago
- License:
- All Rights Reserved
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