Riverdance: The Importance of Being Irish American
2002; Philosophy Documentation Center; Volume: 6; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/nhr.2003.0001
ISSN1534-5815
Autores Tópico(s)Latin American and Latino Studies
ResumoArguably there are many identity options available to the average middle-class, American citizen at the beginning of the twenty-first century. A remarkable increase in the allusions, images, and representations of Ireland in the United States during the last two decades firmly situates "Irish-American" at the top of that identity option list. Irish-themed films, made-for-television movies, children's television programs, dance and theater productions, television commercials, books, music, festivals, and theme pubs constitute some of the more obvious successes in this seemingly endless popular culture inventory. 1 Moreover, alongside these high profile genres, one must acknowledge the rapidly growing industry of Irish-themed catalog shopping that predictably relies on the old standards of Waterford Crystal and Belleek China, but also offers such items as the Irish-American Heritage video that guarantees to teach your children how to count in Gaelic (only up to ten though), the Notre Dame Fightin' Irish Afghan, and Innisfree Perfume—The Essence of Ireland, with lavender oil from the fields of County Wicklow complete with quotations from Yeats on the bottle. Taken together, these products seem to provide something for every middle-class Irish American so that, to borrow Adorno and Horkheimer's dramatic phrase, "none may escape." 2 What, then, is the allure of all this Irishness? Some light may be cast on this question by considering two of the most succesful Irish-themed productions of the last twenty years—Riverdance and Lord of the [End Page 9] Dance—and the ways in which they appeal to notions of Irishness in contemporary Irish America.
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