And footlights lit the path of the righteous: Theatricality and performance in the Second Great Awakening

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2011-05

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Abstract

This study examines the theatricalization of American Protestant evangelical Christianity during the Second Great Awakening (1790-1840). Using as organizing principles the concepts of form, function, and performance, I illustrate the theatrical shift in the religious culture of American evangelical Protestantism. Further, I attribute a large part of the success of the Second Great Awakening to the theatricalization of evangelical Protestantism.


This thesis won 1st Place in the Texas Tech University Outstanding Thesis and Dissertation Award, Humanities/Fine Arts, 2011.

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Keywords

Nineteenth-century American theatre, Second Great Awakening, Evangelical Christianity, Theatre, Religious culture, Protestantism

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