Page 164 - Šolsko polje, XXVIII, 2017, no. 3-4: Education and the American Dream, ed. Mitja Sardoč
P. 164
šolsko polje, letnik xxviii, številka 3–4
As content-specific and persistently stable through time, the Amer-
ican Dream reflects a dominant system of beliefs. It can be argued that it
has, ever since the rise of the industrial era, significantly shaped the ideol-
ogy, and, consequently, the lifestyle of a western man. The ideal that nour-
ishes the pursuit of happiness has surpassed the test of time, thus giving
one a pertinent reason to understand it beyond the notion of a cultural
construct. The next logical step in this examination would be to search for
narrative elements that form the structure of the American Dream and
identify any potential patterns that might occur. In this sense, the pop-
ular culture can be understood as an expressive platform, where the full
ramification of the concept can be observed and analysed. In order to find
parallels with basic plot components and pairs of function, the morpho-
logical analysis of the American Dream narrative will be implemented.
This analysis will follow the narrative structure, as proposed by Propp in
his seminal and widely discussed work Morphology of the Folktale (Propp,
1968). To be able to apply Propp’s folktale morphology, 6 typical stories
depicting the American Dream have been chosen; each story represents a
well-known personality that made her success in the United States. All 6
personalities have been frequently depicted by lifestyle media as an epit-
ome of the American Dream. The stories were captured from various on-
line sources that matched the search query1 and then cross-checked with
more extensive biographical versions from other relevant sources.2 In this
fashion the maximum granularity of each biography was reached. All 6
stories were analysed according to Propp’s enumeration of basic functions
of the dramatis personae (Propp, 1968: p. 25).
Applications and Results
As already known, Propp defined 31 narrative units or components that
form a narrative. These basic narrative features were manually extracted
from biographies of well-known personalities, whose life, according to
lifestyle media3, epitomizes the concept of the American Dream. The pur-
pose of the analysis was to: (i) search for typical narrative features that oc-
1 Many queries were used, however, the simplest one yielded best results.
2 There was a pertinent reason for using Wikipedia. As an open and free online encyclope-
dia it represents the collective perceptions of the concepts, ideas and, in this case, biogra-
phies. Since biographies on Wikipedia are not limited to one author, they more authenti-
cally represent the collective work of participants (including biases and misconceptions).
These contributions can be perceived as a modern collective storytelling, where biases are
inevitable. However, the crucial milestones in a person’s life were verified through other
sources, such as official biographies. For a detailed list of biographies, see the References.
3 ‘Lifestyle media’ is defined as media content on any type of media (traditional media, new
media) promoting various versions of lifestyles that largely correspond to dominant neo-
liberal system of beliefs.
162
As content-specific and persistently stable through time, the Amer-
ican Dream reflects a dominant system of beliefs. It can be argued that it
has, ever since the rise of the industrial era, significantly shaped the ideol-
ogy, and, consequently, the lifestyle of a western man. The ideal that nour-
ishes the pursuit of happiness has surpassed the test of time, thus giving
one a pertinent reason to understand it beyond the notion of a cultural
construct. The next logical step in this examination would be to search for
narrative elements that form the structure of the American Dream and
identify any potential patterns that might occur. In this sense, the pop-
ular culture can be understood as an expressive platform, where the full
ramification of the concept can be observed and analysed. In order to find
parallels with basic plot components and pairs of function, the morpho-
logical analysis of the American Dream narrative will be implemented.
This analysis will follow the narrative structure, as proposed by Propp in
his seminal and widely discussed work Morphology of the Folktale (Propp,
1968). To be able to apply Propp’s folktale morphology, 6 typical stories
depicting the American Dream have been chosen; each story represents a
well-known personality that made her success in the United States. All 6
personalities have been frequently depicted by lifestyle media as an epit-
ome of the American Dream. The stories were captured from various on-
line sources that matched the search query1 and then cross-checked with
more extensive biographical versions from other relevant sources.2 In this
fashion the maximum granularity of each biography was reached. All 6
stories were analysed according to Propp’s enumeration of basic functions
of the dramatis personae (Propp, 1968: p. 25).
Applications and Results
As already known, Propp defined 31 narrative units or components that
form a narrative. These basic narrative features were manually extracted
from biographies of well-known personalities, whose life, according to
lifestyle media3, epitomizes the concept of the American Dream. The pur-
pose of the analysis was to: (i) search for typical narrative features that oc-
1 Many queries were used, however, the simplest one yielded best results.
2 There was a pertinent reason for using Wikipedia. As an open and free online encyclope-
dia it represents the collective perceptions of the concepts, ideas and, in this case, biogra-
phies. Since biographies on Wikipedia are not limited to one author, they more authenti-
cally represent the collective work of participants (including biases and misconceptions).
These contributions can be perceived as a modern collective storytelling, where biases are
inevitable. However, the crucial milestones in a person’s life were verified through other
sources, such as official biographies. For a detailed list of biographies, see the References.
3 ‘Lifestyle media’ is defined as media content on any type of media (traditional media, new
media) promoting various versions of lifestyles that largely correspond to dominant neo-
liberal system of beliefs.
162
