The Biannual Online-Journal of Springsteen Studies

Contributors

Caroline Madden — 2025-01-15

A list of the contributors to the Vol. 6 2024 issue of BOSS.

Introduction

Caroline Madden — 2025-01-15

An introduction to the Vol. 6 2024 issue of BOSS.

Reviews

Caroline Madden — 2025-01-15

Mary Climbs In: The Journeys of Bruce Springsteen’s Women Fans, written by Lorraine Mangione and Donna Luff
Carrie Pitzulo

Renegades: Born in the USA, written by Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen (Crown, 2021, 303 pages).
James Tackach

Because the Boss Belongs to Us, hosted by Jesse Lawson and Holly Casio
Lucas Crawford

Dialogic Praxis: Radical Pedagogy for a Runaway American Dream

Caroline Madden — 2025-01-15

In his 1968 classic Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Brazil’s heroic social reformer and educational theorist Paulo Freire argues that man’s ontological vocation is to create a world that is just for all. Such transformation begins with the individual, who must first create an awakening within himself—conscientização—and then, upon careful reflection, take action. This thinking and action, which Freire calls praxis, can only occur through dialogics, an authentic dialogue between teacher and learners. Bruce Springsteen has conceptualized his career as an ongoing conversation with his audience (Rolling Stone, November 1, 2007), and I argue that Springsteen’s dialogue with his fans fosters a pedagogy similar to Freire’s. Both thinkers provide unique models of dialogic praxis designed for different purposes. Freire offers a direct, boots-on-the-ground, mission-oriented approach he established via “cultural circles” to help Brazilians self-actualize and become empowered citizens. Springsteen offers an indirect, visionary approach mediated through songwriting, concert performances, and public statements to help Americans transform themselves into empathetic citizens. I argue here that both models of dialogic praxis, visionary and missionary, are necessary to help citizens in the American democratic republic reclaim a shared sense of values that enable them to see each other not as enemies but as neighbors. Freire called dialogic praxis a “radical pedagogy” that I contend is needed to address the root causes of American political violence.

“They wanted to know why I did what I did:” Reading Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” through Ernest Hemingway’s Iceberg Principle

Caroline Madden — 2025-01-15

Bruce Springsteen and Ernest Hemingway, two masters of their respective forms, are rarely spoken of in conversation with each other. One rose to fame as a serious-minded author before parlaying that recognition into a macho persona that became a cultural icon of the early twentieth century; the other, gained notoriety as an electrifying performer known for his lyrical verbosity and blue-collar work ethic who has sustained a successful musical career for over 50 years. Yet, on the level of artistry and technique, we can see that as Springsteen moved into his second decade in the early-1980s, his lyrical style, especially on 1982’s Nebraska, shifted into a mode that could be considered Hemingwayesque. This essay examines the song “Nebraska” through the tenets of Hemingway’s theory of writing, the Iceberg Principle, which denotes the idea that if writers are “writing truly enough” they can show only the tip of their metaphorical icebergs, and the reader will intuit the rest. Reading “Nebraska” through this principle exposes the dense layers of narrative execution, character development, and complex thematic resonances that reverberate underneath the mere 167 words Springsteen uses to tell the story of serial killer Charles Starkweather. In doing so, this study reveals the audacity, and considerable skill, of Springsteen’s poetics.

“Man Turns His Back On His Family”: Domestic Precarity and Fragile Masculinity in The Indian Runner and “Highway Patrolman”

Caroline Madden — 2025-01-15

This paper examines Sean Penn's film The Indian Runner in relation to the song he adapted it from, Bruce Springsteen's "Highway Patrolman." The film’s plot closely follows the narrative of the song while greatly fleshing out the backstories of the central characters, brothers Joe and Frank Roberts, and adding in several other plot elements that help to allow the film to build to the dramatic climax that is lifted from the song’s final verse. But what these various elements also do, beyond "flesh[ing] out the narrative spine provided by Springsteen's song," as Jeff Smith puts it in Film Art, is shed light on the film’s dominant. From the film’s first scene, it is evident that the film's environment is one in which masculinity is fragile and is constantly at risk of destroying both itself and the very foundation of domesticity. While "Highway Patrolman" is an effective under-six-minute morality play about family and ethical dilemmas when it comes to loved ones, in this paper I argue that The Indian Runner's dominant is ultimately the deconstruction of the classic morality play via the inclusion of scenes and stylistic elements that consistently show both the detrimental impact of the main characters' damaged masculine identities on themselves and their families. In doing so, I examine the film's three structural levels -- stylistic, narrative, and thematic -- concluding that the film's use of defamiliarization on the first two levels allows the themes to be communicated in ways that both honor and transcend its inspiration.

It’s Only Rock & Roll: Springsteen, Cultural Value, and Self-Myth on Film

Caroline Madden — 2025-01-15

Bruce Springsteen’s recent career activity (2016-2024) has seen him be remarkably active across a range of media types and platforms. Much of this activity is tied to what Laura Watson has termed Springsteen’s ‘memoir project’, an arc of activity which extends from the publication of his autobiography Born To Run in 2016 through to the Netflix adaptation of Springsteen on Broadway in 2018. However, beyond the core aspect of this ‘memoir project,’ Springsteen has made pointed use of film as a way to expand perceptions of his place within the cultural landscape. Springsteen is no stranger to the use of cinema for affective purposes and has been making rockumentaries about his output since 1996. What is remarkable, however, is how his use of cinematic language (shots, camera angle, editing) has clearly been adapted recently to introduce and highlight new facets of his artistic persona with regard to compositional practice, while simultaneously working to maintain a coherence of narrative with regard to his rock’n’roll authenticity. This cinematic focus seems designed to expand Springsteen’s cultural legacy to include gestures toward (high) artistic output rather than (just) rock’n’roll. While the biographical aspect—Springsteen’s origin story—has remained remarkably consistent, Springsteen has used film to proactively reshape his legacy. Springsteen, via an extended period of careful career positioning, slight shifts in presentation of persona, and the engagement of his fan base in an authenticating process that facilitates the layering of identity, both creates the media flow out of which individual fans may construct a personal connection to his artistic output and ensures coherence with an evolving and highly curated mythology.

A Glimpse Inside the Collection of the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music at Monmouth University

Caroline Madden — 2025-01-15

The Bruce Springsteen Archives at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey serves as the official repository for Springsteen’s songs and other written works, plus photographs, periodicals, oral histories, recordings, films, and artifacts related to Bruce and the E Street Band. The Center for American Music produces museum exhibitions, seminars and educational workshops, concerts, and various other public programs to explore the many forms of American music and their impact on our culture and national identity.