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Burger, Alissa. The Wizard of Oz as American Myth: A Critical Study of Six Versions of the Story, 1900-2007. Jefferson: McFarland X, 2012. 240 pp. Paperback. ISBN 978-0-7864-6643-6. $35.00.
As a favorite American fairy tale, a cultural narrative, and an expression of national values and identity, The Wizard of Oz exercises a powerful hold on the American imagination. Alissa Burger's critical study, The Wizard of Oz as American Myth, demonstrates that this century-old story is not only vibrantly alive, but still vigorously evolving. Acknowledging this evolution as a story worth unfolding on its own, Burger ambitiously examines six particular incarnations of the classic tale: L. Frank Baum's novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900); the MGM film, The Wizard of Oz (1939); Sidney Lumet's musical, The Wiz (1978); Gregory Maguire's bestselling novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995); Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman's hit Broadway show, Wicked (2003); and, lastly, the SyFy Channel's steampunk-styled mini-series, Tin Man (2007). Surveying these lively works, Burger finds that ensuing versions renew, reinterpret, revise, and reinvent their earlier counterparts, and each successive Oz reflects new values indicative of a shifting national identity. Furthermore, each singular Wizard of Oz records important historical, cultural, and ideological shifts, and each, in varying ways, complicates and challenges Baum and Fleming's patriarchal, canonical master narratives.
The Wizard of Oz as American Myth may captivate fans, but its critical content will principally appeal to scholars researching the fields of American literature and culture, popular culture, or the fairy tale. Burger splits her explorations into theory and theme. The book begins theoretically, as the focus of Chapter One, "Reinventing American Myth," examines the discourse of American myth and symbol, and Chapter Two, "Text and Performance," introduces theory and analysis regarding performative media-necessary groundwork, for this study encompasses novel, film, drama, and even television mini-series. The second section, composed of the final four chapters, centers on significant themes: Chapter Three, "Wicked and Wonderful Women," conducts a feminist study of the tale's various manifestations. Chapter Four, "Race, History, and Representation," considers ideas of race and the Other. Chapter Five, "Home Sweet Home," sifts through shifting notions of home in these varying narratives, and Chapter Six, "Magic and Witchcraft," reveals revisions in...