Date of Award:
5-2015
Document Type:
Thesis
Degree Name:
Master of Arts (MA)
Department:
English
Committee Chair(s)
Lisa Gabbert
Committee
Lisa Gabbert
Committee
Melody Graulich
Committee
Lynne McNeill
Abstract
This thesis is a study of the “underground” cycling community in Ogden, Utah. This thesis establishes a groundwork understanding of the nature of underground cycling culture, particularly in relation to identity. Using folkloric definitions of identity and subculture as my foundation, I conducted fieldwork with the Ogden cycling community to examine four different facets of cyclist activities: folk art, folk events, narratives, and the community’s use of space. Each of the four facets also illustrated the different levels of identity, shifting from individual levels, outward to the performance of identity as an individual and group within a larger local and global community. Countercultural cycling micro-communities exist across the United States, if not the world, but until now have been, relatively unstudied. This serves as a foundational a study of cycling culture and contributes to folkloric understandings of identity performance.
Checksum
4b326448a876999565665dd7673b271a
Recommended Citation
Christiansen, Anna P., "The Underground Gang: Cyclist Group Identity as Expressed Through Folk Art, Folk Events, Narratives, and Community Spaces" (2015). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023. 4467.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/4467
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