A Dollar and a Dream: Reflexive Spirituality, "My Name is Earl," and Capitalist Connotations for the American Spiritual Marketplace

In the twenty-first century the United States is caught in a moment of cultural adjustment that reflects the barrage of ideological, material, and social dilemmas that emerged in the past century. This thesis engages with a variety of theories and concepts that emerged during this time in an attempt to explore the potential effects of what Wade Clark Roof refers to as "reflexive spirituality," characterized by anti-institutional, highly subjective and constantly re-evaluated and re-contextualized ideas of religious truth for the individual in juxtaposition with her/his community. By applying contemporary media studies, civil religion studies, and Gramsci's theories of hegemony and common sense to the NBC sitcom "My Name is Earl," this study explores the influence of media, capitalism and hegemony in forming a reflexively spiritual individual's identity, and concludes that in the contemporary age this individual is better equipped to self-consciously and critically engage with questions of social influence, which may ultimately lead to alterations in commonsensical notions of social values and status.