A Political Analysis of ‘Hamilton: an American Musical’
Part II: Updating the Narrative of the Founding Fathers
Part III: Musicals and Politics
Ancient Greece, a few centuries before Christ. On the island of Crete, a first, unfinished printing press was invented. Had it been developed fully, it might have placed the advent of mass printing twenty centuries before Gutemberg - but in rural Greece, there was little use for a mechanism that allowed its users to print swift and relatively cheap copies of the same text. Writing was a privilege of the elite, and clay tablets were primarily used for economic (taxation) purposes. The early press never reached its potential, and its technique was forgotten.
The story of Crete’s printing press is a perfect example to show how much context matters - and so it does for ‘Hamilton’. Just like the press could never develop without a fertile soil, so too could ‘Hamilton’ never grew into the phenomenon it is now without a background that nurtured it. What are the most important elements that contributed to the creation of the show, and its overwhelming success?
Barack Obama. “This is something that was created with him in mind,” Leslie Odom, Jr. (Aaron Burr) says. “When Chris Jackson steps forward, as a biracial man, and says he’s George Washington, the first president of our country, we don’t get to divorce ourselves from the new image that we have of a biracial man as the president of our country.”
The musical is intrinsically bound to Obama’s election as first black president of the United States. It is no coincidence Lin-Manuel Miranda conceived the show in 2008, in full election period. He might have been influenced too by the cover of The New Yorker, that showed Obama with an anachronistic wig and custom. This kind of anachronism would be woven throughout the entire musical too.
Founders Chic. Had someone predicted one day a musical starring the former first secretary of the treasury would become a monster hit, few would have believed him - but to a degree, it was predictable. The musical fits into the larger Founders Chic trend, a widespread fascination with the white Founding Fathers and their narratives, which was picked up especially in the 1990s and 2000s.
This nostalgic return to the past offers consolation in an increasingly disturbing time, but it functions as a political tool too. Often, this narrative, these figures, are used by conservative groups, to legitimize and strengthen the idea that the US is a creation by white, Anglo-Saxon men, and thus belongs to them, not to POC or women. ‘Hamilton’’s revolutionary appeal lies in the fact that it wrestles this narrative from the conservative spectrum and turns this Founding Father into the spokesman for a distinctively progressive agenda, focused on immigrants, African Americans, and women.
Lin-Manuel Miranda. The show is not some timeless,, impersonal story - it is a musical that emerged out of the mind of a specific writer, with specific concerns and ideals, and a specific background. Lin-Manuel wrote something that is both universal and deeply personal. Especially his Puerto Rican heritage simmers throughout his works - both in In the Heights and in Hamilton the immigrant-theme is strongly present, and so is his Democratic outlook, given to him by his father, who is a political consultant for the Democratic Party in New York. Miranda also is deeply engaged in social justice for marginalized groups, such as African-Americans, Latinos, and to a lesser extent, women. In fact, ‘Hamilton’ provides a blueprint for his own, personal view on the (future) American society and politics (see Part III: Politics)
Why is it Donald Trump, of all people, has received the presidential candidacy? The answer is relatively simple - people are afraid. Not only is the US no longer the sole superpower, internally inequality is growing horribly and the economy is lagging. One solution is to blame the current political and social system (as Bernie Sanders is doing, which also explains his unexpected appeal), another is to blame the immigrants and marginalized groups (as Donald Trump is doing). Both offer a view on a future, better society.
Miranda, though not a politician, is doing the same. In his politically charged musical, he uses a relatively unknown Founding Father (thus subscribing to the Founders Chic trend) to project a future America according to his concerns - an America that is multicultural and coloured, an America that does not belong to white men, but to people of color and women.
One way of doing so, is by reverting the traditional, conservative narrative of the Founding Fathers, by including African-Americans, women and immigrants into the story. Another way is by linking the musical to modern-day politics, both in the story as in the real world. In doing so, he however abuses history. These points shall be elaborated in later posts.
This post is based on the thesis “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story?” Reinventing a National Narrative and Its Political Meaning in ‘Hamilton: an American Musical’. It was presented at the University of Ghent in 2016, by Stéphanie Verbrugghe, under supervision of prof. Ken Kennard.
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