Contemporizing History: Examining the Social Text of the 1905 Sherborne Pageant

Mgr. Jeffrey Alan Norquist, B.A.

Master's thesis

Abstract:

This thesis uses the Sherborne Pageant of 1905, a large outdoor historical drama, as the center-point of an investigation into the discursive themes of Edwardian England. Largely a side by side examination of the pageant structure, the dominant themes of cultural discourse, and the written text record of the event from the news media and contemporary writers, the thesis shows the Edwardians tending towards broad concern regarding the present culture manifesting as an affinity for the past, a tendency well-bred into the cultural discourse. This thesis shows that cultural products, like the Sherborne Pageant, can be used as objects representing a distillation of cultural discourse. Jeffrey Alexander’s theory of ‘cultural pragmatics’ is employed as a theoretical paradigm in examining the written text record produced in response to the pageant. The thesis also successfully tests the efficacy of cultural pragmatics in examining an exclusively textual body of evidence to further understand a relatively fixed time and place in history. The extant written texts that were produced culturally and in response to the pageant are examined for their use of binary oppositions that structured that discourse. The research is underpinned by Paul Ricoeur’s “The Model of the Text” theory that social action is culturally structured and that structure can be found fixed in the written record. Furthering these goals, Alexander’s ‘elements of social performance’ are examined alongside pageant writer Louis Napoleon Parker’s ‘elements of a proper pageant,’ indicating that Alexander’s elements serve as an excellent framework for ascertaining how certain performances are successful and what they tell about the culture that produces them.

Keywords

Edwardian England, cultural pragmatics, Jeffrey Alexander, Louis Napoleon Parker, historical pageants, Paul Ricoeur, binary oppositions, binaries, discourse analysis

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 6. 1. 2014

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 28. 1. 2014
• Supervisor: doc. Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky, Ph.D.
• Reader: Dr. Werner Binder

Masaryk University

Faculty of Social Studies

Master programme / field:
Sociology / Sociology (Eng.)