Chapter 5 - Bob Dylan and History

Summary

This chapter continues the analysis of Dylan’s conspicuous and copious allusions to events, characters and literature from the past with reference to Fredric Jameson’s (2011) Marxist historiography. It explores the parallels between Dylan’s romantic attachment to nature and his cultural forebears in nineteenth-century New England transcendentalism, and argues that this was rooted in his Midwestern upbringing on the Minnesotan Iron Range. As with the analysis of Lennon in Chapter 4, it shows how Dylan’s historical awareness formed the basis for his acute response to cultural tensions that arose as the post-war Fordist economic boom shifted into the economic crises of the early 1970s.