"Instruct the minds of all classes": The circus and American culture at the turn of the century

Abstract

In this dissertation, I argue that the turn-of-the-century American railroad circus both expressed and shaped contemporary ideologies concerning "white" racial supremacy, social Darwinism, Victorian prudery and American nationalism. As an ubiquitous form of popular culture, the circus made seemingly abstract analytic categories (i.e. gender, race, and class) explicable to its audiences. The circus articulated a society in rapid change. In an era of monopoly capitalism, the enormous three-ring circus provided a spectacular, exotic example of big business--in which elephants were a part of its division of labor. In an age when modern writers were determined to "kill the nineteenth century," the circus playfully subverted--yet paradoxically affirmed--late-Victorian ideologies about gender, separate spheres and sexual prudery. During the age of the "strenuous life," the circus celebrated physical culture with its array of muscular acrobats. In an era of rapid immigration from Europe, circus acts codified white ethnic difference as racial difference. The circus reached the height of its visibility during the genesis of America's overseas empire and immediately commodified the new empire with live representatives and reenactments from contemporary foreign affairs. My study treats the circus as a totalizing entertainment. I present both a "bottom up" and "top down" process of cultural production--from the work gangs who set up the circus, to the owners and star performers who published their memoirs about show life. In chapter two, I examine how the circus physically produced its ideological content, with its vast and magical "performances" of labor outside the arena. Chapter three analyzes how circus women could be "respectable" and "educational" when their labor was dependent upon titillating public display. Chapter four explores the contested character of circus performances of male gender and demonstrates how racial representations and the presence of animals shaped the spectacle of the male body. Chapter five argues that the American circus was a powerful staging ground for American nationalism. I conclude by demonstrating that turn-of-the-century circus constructions of gender, race and empire still shape American images of the world.