The Wizard of Oz: Therapeutic rhetoric in a contemporary media ritual (1989)
Article by David Payne
https://search.library.albany.edu/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=cdi_informaworld_taylorfrancis_310_1080_00335638909383860&context=PC&vid=01SUNY_ALB:01SUNY_ALB&lang=en&search_scope=allthethings&adaptor=Primo%20Central&tab=allthethings&query=any,contains,The%20Wizard%20of%20Oz:%20Therapeutic%20rhetoric%20in%20a%20contemporary%20media%20ritual%20(1989)%20%20Article%20by%20David%20Payne&offset=0
In the fall of 1957, MGM’s The Wizard of Oz was broadcast on television for the first time and soon after became a yearly media ritual for American television viewers. David Payne’s article explores this annual television tradition and the therapeutic value it may have offered its viewers, peeling behind the curtain on the social and psychological significance. This may be one of the first regular cultural events also associated with Oz, shared between families and neighbors, and transcending beyond mere entertainment.
The Wizard of Oz: parable on populism (1964)
Article by Henry M. Littlefield
https://www-jstor-org.libproxy.albany.edu/stable/2710826?sid=primo&seq=2
A popular, yet debated interpretation that reads The Wizard of Oz as an allegory for the populist political movement that began in the 1880s, many falsely equate this underlying satire with Baum himself! The Emerald City all of a sudden represents a politically manipulated Washington, D.C and the yellow brick road represents the gold standard, deeply opposed by the Populist movement. While there has been no hard evidence to suggest that this was Baum’s intention in the slightest, Henry M. Littlefield’s 1964 article flipped Oz scholarship on its head. Regardless of Baum’s intent or not, Oz can comfortably sit an intersection or both literature and historical discourse, and offer a mirror to the current times.