On The Theater As The Space Of Consumer Culture In Sister Carrie

Theodore Dreiser is reckoned as one of the most influential and creative writers in American literary history.His work Sister Carrie revealed what American society looked like in the late of nineteenth century and early of twentieth century.In the early period of twentieth century,the whole American society was at the turning point when the burgeoning consumer culture clashed with traditional morality,and cornucopia of commodities abetted people's consumption desire and worship of money,stimulating people's consumption.From the depictions in Dreiser's works,people can see a miniature of American society in the late nineteenth century and the early of twentieth century.In this novel,Dreiser portraits a vivid and picturesque consumer society to readers and demonstrates the vanity and hypocrisy of American society.This thesis aims to analyze consumer culture in Sister Carrie through the point of theater.In the late of nineteenth century,theater,as a leisure place,played a vital role in people's recreational activities.Meanwhile,theater,as a space of consumer culture,can be reckoned as a supporter of consumer culture,revealing features of consumer culture.Through the close reading of Sister Carrie,The author analyzes theater as a space of consumer culture in this novel from three aspects.Firstly,the geographical space of theater demonstrated the rise of consumer society.The emphasis on theaters' location,environment and promotion indicated that people's pursuit and requirement of recreational activities improved continuously,showing people's indulgence in material enjoyments and extravagant lifestyle;Secondly,theater as a consumption space offered a place for conspicuous consumption.Performers,audiences and theatrical plays were influenced deeply by money worship.Performers' worship of money was crazy,and they were keen on material pursuit;audiences were enthusiastic about conspicuous consumption,through which they can show their social status and fortune.Besides,the contents of theatrical plays tended to depict luxurious and dissipated life shared by the upper class,promoting worship of money;finally,theater as a social space witnessed the changes of protagonists' social status,and it can distinguish people's classes.In consumer society,the instability of class resulted in anxiety of status,which also led to different consumption choices.Hence,the author points out that theater,as a space of consumer culture,witnesses the rise of consumer society,which demonstrates the transformation of protagonists' consumption practices and consumption concepts and witnessing the reproducing of their social relations and changes of their fates under the influence of consumer culture.