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Social drama, crisis, and the Columbine High School shooting

Berres, Allen W.

Abstract Details

2005, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, English.
The shootings at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999 constitute what Victor Turner classified as a social drama. The shootings were intended to resolve a power struggle within the Columbine High School community, and the shooters clearly intended to influence a national audience as well. The struggle over interpretation of the event on the national level, and the subsequent power that comes with success in this struggle, is the focus of this dissertation. Members of the community, media commentators, legislators, school board members, federal bureaucrats, and independent experts mutually agreed that the Columbine shootings were a sign of a larger, continuing crisis, and the aforementioned groups used the sense of urgency following the shootings as a means of advancing a wide range of pre-existing solutions for the crisis. Some experts, however, attempted to undermine the widely accepted notion of the school shooting crisis, using an analysis of Columbine to refocus the public’s attention on what these experts argued were the real problems posing the greatest danger to society. Although school shooting events continued to occur into 2003 and are likely to reoccur in the future, the school shooting crisis is over; it has been overwhelmed by the war on terror following the September 11 attacks.
Amy Shuman (Advisor)
313 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Berres, A. W. (2005). Social drama, crisis, and the Columbine High School shooting [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1103763159

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Berres, Allen. Social drama, crisis, and the Columbine High School shooting. 2005. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1103763159.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Berres, Allen. "Social drama, crisis, and the Columbine High School shooting." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1103763159

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)