American Culture Studies Ph.D. Dissertations
Morality and Aspiration: Some Conditions of Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms
Date of Award
2020
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
American Culture Studies
First Advisor
Rebecca Mancuso (Advisor)
Second Advisor
Laura Sanchez (Other)
Third Advisor
Charles Coletta (Committee Member)
Fourth Advisor
Andrew Hershberger (Committee Member)
Abstract
The compendium of scholarly investigation in art history woefully lacks acknowledgement of perhaps the most widely known American artist of the 20th century. Norman Rockwell created works that caused non-critics to identify with understanding their sense of American identity. Rockwell also created works that caused critics to mention him by name a chief arbiter of middlebrow repression. Rockwell’s work would later be signposted as a callback to a mythical, simpler time in America. This research considers the aforementioned, exploring Rockwell’s Four Freedoms, often recalled, reinvented and discussed as symbols of American morality and aspiration. Through a focused investigation of these four works, this research defines elements of “hyper-American” expression as a subsidiary of mid-century American kitsch. Rockwell’s expressions of Americana define the rhetoric of self-realized identity that has been copied, popularized, examined, and re-examined in many areas of popular culture.
Recommended Citation
Lynch, Sylvio III, "Morality and Aspiration: Some Conditions of Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms" (2020). American Culture Studies Ph.D. Dissertations. 112.
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/acs_diss/112