Who Tells Our Story: Intersectional Temporalities in Hamilton, An American Musical

Authors

Andie Silva, CUNY York CollegeFollow
Shereen Inayatulla, CUNY York CollegeFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2017

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which Hamilton: An American Musical can be read less as a historical account and more as a prediction of a future immigrant, who is called upon to (re)define US nationhood. Keeping with the tempo of the musical as well as the broader issues of time, space, and identity it attempts to address, this article is presented as a dialogical rap. The co-authors’ discussion frames Hamilton as an example of the power of unplottable, time-arresting immigrant bodies, to whom the colonial imposition of linear history does not apply. From this framework, the authors’ conversation shifts to critiques of racialized tropes running through the production as well as the inaccessibility of theatre tickets. The goal of this dialogical analysis is to invite further debate about the kinds of immigrant time/space travel that make visible questions of agency, representation, and access.

Comments

This is the accepted manuscript of an article originally published in Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education, available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1358684X.2017.1311038