Beyond Green: Re-reading "Wicked" as Anthropological Text

Authors

• Tan Gia Bao Huynh, Waseda UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This paper examines "Wicked" through the lens of cultural borderlands, revealing how the musical dramatizes the creation and navigation of social boundaries. By analyzing Elphaba's journey, the research demonstrates how her green skin serves as a powerful metaphor for cultural otherness, while her experiences at Shiz University and beyond illustrate strategies of resistance, accommodation, and identity formation familiar to those navigating between dominant and marginalized spaces. Particularly significant is the paper's examination of Oz's propaganda system, which demonstrates how cultures manufacture monsters and heroes through selective storytelling and public ritual. This analysis offers fresh insights into "Wicked's" enduring appeal, suggesting its resonance stems not just from its impressive spectacle but from its sophisticated exploration of fundamental human experiences of difference, belonging, and the struggle to control cultural narratives. The findings contribute to our understanding of popular culture as a site where complex anthropological processes are dramatized and negotiated, inviting audiences to question the construction of wickedness in their own societies.

Recommended Citation

Huynh, Tan Gia Bao () "Beyond Green: Re-reading "Wicked" as Anthropological Text," Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy: Vol. 13: Iss. 1, Article 1.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dialogue/vol13/iss1/1