The Power of Fragility

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_article_11221
dc.title	The Power of Fragility. Martha Graham, Clytemnestra, and United States Cold War Propaganda
dc.contributor.author	Phillips Victoria
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Venice University Press, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.type	Research Article
dc.language.iso	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/annali-di-ca-foscari-serie-orientale/2023/2/the-power-of-fragility/
dc.description.abstract	Martha Graham’s modernist dance, Clytemnestra, opened on Broadway in 1958; celebrated as “a blazing swatch of emotional colors,” its Cold War political import became immediately apparent as it toured for the US government. Clytemnestra demonstrated not only the cultural sophistication of the US; the dramatization of emotions in an American modern non-verbal language engaged international audience and diplomatic “hearts” in the US bid for “hearts and minds” in its fight against communism. As a powerful artist, Graham brought her fragility to the stage, which represented the nation in what the government called the “the translation effect.”
dc.relation.ispartof	Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 59 \| October 2023
dc.issued	2023-12-01
dc.dateSubmitted	2022-11-24
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2385-3042
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2023/02/001
dc.peer-review	no
dc.subject	Cold War, Cultural Diplomacy, Modern Dance, United

Research Article
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Martha Graham, Clytemnestra, and United States Cold War Propaganda

Victoria Phillips Columbia University, New York

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abstract

Martha Graham’s modernist dance, Clytemnestra, opened on Broadway in 1958; celebrated as “a blazing swatch of emotional colors,” its Cold War political import became immediately apparent as it toured for the US government. Clytemnestra demonstrated not only the cultural sophistication of the US; the dramatization of emotions in an American modern non-verbal language engaged international audience and diplomatic “hearts” in the US bid for “hearts and minds” in its fight against communism. As a powerful artist, Graham brought her fragility to the stage, which represented the nation in what the government called the “the translation effect.”

Published

Dec. 1, 2023

Submitted

Nov. 24, 2022

Language

Keywords: Cold War, Cultural Diplomacy, Modern Dance, United

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2023/02/001

Copyright: © 2023 Victoria Phillips. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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