Anticipating the Better World: Hollywood Musical Narrative during World War II

The Musical is not only escapism nor mere entertainment as many film scholars have written. It is also ideological operations. This paper focuses on the narrative analysis of the Hollywood Musical genre during World War Ⅱ, suggesting how it produces the ideological effects of "utopian vision" on the spectator through its structure,style,and theme. To this end,I first proceed to clarify the difference between the Musical and the classical narrative. I then explore the historical development of the Musical narrative, with relation to the technological innovations and the ideological shifts. The Musical narrative contains the classical narrative and the spectacular song and dance numbers, which provide the spectator with the images of "real" and "utopia". This dual structure is frequently concluded with a big production number, emphasizing the American brotherhood and unity. Through these examinations, I suggest that the Musical narrative helps to bring to the spectator, more or less, the progressive utopian sensibility, the anticipation of the better world,and the faith in American Democracy