Introduction -- "Irish by name": an overview of Irish and ethnic performance in vaudeville -- Performing Irishness at Tony Pastor's opera house, 1865-1874 -- Representations of Irish masculinity in vaudeville -- Representations of Irish women in vaudeville -- Conclusion -- Appendix
Summary
Vaudeville is often viewed as the source of some of the crudest Irish stereotypes - violent, drunken men and ignorant, unfeminine women - that served to position the Irish immigrant in America as the antithesis of native-born American citizens. However, through the use of previously unexplored primary archive material, and by giving particular focus to the role of gender in constructing images of Irish America, Mooney questions this view. Instead, she argues that the vaudeville stage was an important venue in which an Irish-American identity was constructed, negotiated, and refined, not just by native-born performers but also by Irish-American performers, writers, and audience members
