Alternative Title
Hard country music, the white working class, and the experience of loss in the American neoliberal context
Publication Date
2018
Document Type
Masters Thesis
Study Type
Quantitative
Degree Name
Master of Social Work
Department
School for Social Work
Keywords
Neoliberalism, Neoliberal, Working-class white, White, Whiteness, Masculinity, Country music, Ronald Fairbairn, Object relations
Abstract
This paper utilises the object relations theories of Ronald Fairbairn to conceptualise the narratives of Hard Country music, and understand how they relate to the shifting experiences of the male, white working-class in America in the latter half of the twentieth century. This paper understands the privileges that masculinity and whiteness have afforded the male, white working-class in the post-war period, and attempts to locate the relative loss felt by this population in the subsequent eras of de-industrialisation, neoliberalisation, second-wave feminism and the civil rights movement. Undertaking a thematic analysis of Hard Country music, an art form that purports to provide a narrative to the white, working-class experience, this study works to contextualise a population’s felt sense of loss from an object relations perspective.
Rights
©2018 Nicholas Johnston. Access limited to the Smith College community and other researchers while on campus. Smith College community members also may access from off-campus using a Smith College log-in. Other off-campus researchers may request a copy through Interlibrary Loan for personal use.
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Johnston, Nicholas, "I'll hang around as long as you will let me : hard country music, the white working class, and the experience of loss in the American neoliberal context" (2018). Masters Thesis, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/theses/2096
Comments
ii, 48 pages. Includes bibliographical references (pages 42-43)