Save Kennedy, save the world : the performance of the popular historiography of the Kennedy assassination in The State of Texas v Lee Harvey Oswald

Abstract

This thesis explores the performance of popular historiography of the Kennedy assassination as provided through a 2017 mock trial by Citizen’s Against Political Assassination, The State of Texas V Lee Harvey Oswald. Popular Kennedy assassination historiography functions as a mythology of American culture, underscoring Manichean themes and symbolically represents a loss of American innocence. Dramaturgically reading popular Kennedy assassination history as myth alongside a 2017 mock trial highlights the ways citizens use theater to actively and affectively write history. As such performance studies, dramaturgical analysis, cultural studies and affect theory helps elaborate on the subjective and cultural dimensions of performed historiography in Texas V Oswald and other pop culture iterations.