Subversion Of The History

The musical Hamilton,written by Lin-Manuel Miranda,a descendant of Puerto Rican immigrants,won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2016,and became one of the most successful musicals on Broadway in the 21st century.Hamilton,with a totally fresh perspective,a unique discourse and special artistic forms,re-examines the history of the early days of the United States,and at the same time breaks norms of the Broadway musicals both in the artistic technique and in the selection of actors.In a sense,it is the subversion and reconstruction of the existing History,which coincides with the views of New Historicism.New Historicism emerged in the late 1980s and has become an important means for today's cultural and literary critique.It emphasizes ideology when we interpret literary and artistic works,pays much attention to the historical context on which literature and art depend,and deconstructs the existing history with subversive attitude.Based on the basic principles of New Historicism,the thesis studies the characters,themes and artistic styles of the musical from three aspects:retrospection,subversion and reconstruction of the history with a view to revealing the features of New Historicism in it.First of all,by looking back on and examining the history of real Hamilton,the founding father of America,of Puerto Rican immigrants and of American musicals,the thesis points out the historical tint of the musical Hamilton.Then,through the analysis of totally new Hamilton in the musical,the innovative use of hip-hop rap technique,and the bold employment of colored people as actors and actresses,the thesis reveals how the musical has subverted the existing history in the aspect of image creation,artistic technique reformation and character selection.Finally,by focusing on the issues of identity,race and history,the thesis has firstly conducted a comparison between the real Hamilton,the founding father in American history,and Hamilton,the character in the musical,then done an analysis of the state quo of both Puerto Rican immigrants and the playwright himself,and finally made a survey of the important position of the discussed musical.With the aforementioned study,the author reveals the fact that Hamilton,to some degree,is a reconstruction of the history in terms of identity,race and American musicals.On the basis of the above analysis,the thesis concludes that the study of the musical Hamilton from the perspective of New Historicism can help us learn more about the cultural and social values conveyed in the musical,and understand better its nature of subversion and reconstruction of American immigrant history,mainstream social values and traditional musical art.It is hoped that the research can also help to inspire people to examine the history of immigrants in the United States more comprehensively and objectively,to be aware of its cultural,historical and artistic characteristics,and more,to learn its important position in American musical history.