When Andy Kaufman
succumbed suddenly
to lung cancer in 1984, some of his fans believed that his death was
yet
another elaborate prank. Over the previous decade, Kaufman had achieved
improbable fame for his bizarre antiperformances—lip-synching
the Mighty
Mouse theme song, reading The Great Gatsby aloud in its entirety when
people
expected comedy, asking audience members to touch a boil on his
neck—that
perplexed, annoyed, or offended his viewers.
|
In Andy
Kaufman, Florian Keller
explores Kaufman’s career within a broader discussion of the
ideology of
the American Dream. Taking as his starting point the 1999 biopic Man
on
the Moon, Keller brilliantly decodes Kaufman in a way that makes it
possible
to grasp his radical agenda beyond avant-garde theories of
transgression. |
As an
entertainer, Kaufman submerged his identity beneath a
multiplicity
of personas, enacting the American belief that the self can and should
be endlessly remade for the sake of happiness and success. He did this
so rigorously and consistently, Keller argues, that he exposed the
internal
contradictions of America’s ideology of
self-invention.
Keller posits that
Kaufman offered
a radically different—and perhaps more potent—logic
of cultural criticism
than did more overtly political comedians such as Lenny Bruce.
Presenting
close readings of Kaufman’s most significant performances,
Keller shows
how Kaufman mounted—for the benefit of an often
uncomprehending public—a
sustained and remarkable critique of America’s obsession with
celebrity
and individualism.
|
Andy
Kaufman
Wrestling
with the
American Dream
by
Florian Keller
University
of Minnesota
Press, 2005.
Order
a copy
|
