American Culture Studies Ph.D. Dissertations
Title
Portrait of a Real American: Class, Masculinity, Race, and Ideology in American Professional Wrestling, 1983-1993
Date of Award
2022
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
American Culture Studies
First Advisor
Scott Martin (Advisor)
Second Advisor
Brooks Vostal (Other)
Third Advisor
Kristen Rudisill (Committee Member)
Fourth Advisor
Radhika Gajjala (Committee Member)
Abstract
Fans and afficionados alike consider Hulk Hogan (Terry Eugene Bollea) to be the most successful professional wrestler of all time given his box-office drawing ability. Previous scholarship has looked at the relationship between professional wrestling and American culture largely through textual analysis and the symbolic interpretation of popular wrestling personas. This study argues that the success of Hulk Hogan and American professional wrestling in the 1980s and 1990s could have only been possible during the emergence of a variety of trends in American capitalism; specifically in production, technology, and other cultural trends while also exploring the dimensions of race, nationalism, gender, and class. By framing Marxist, film, and political economy-based theory into a cultural historical lens, this study looks at how characters such as Hogan were both literal and symbolic creations of neoliberalism.
Recommended Citation
Canada, Nicholas Ryan, "Portrait of a Real American: Class, Masculinity, Race, and Ideology in American Professional Wrestling, 1983-1993" (2022). American Culture Studies Ph.D. Dissertations. 128.
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/acs_diss/128