"We're all in somebody else's head": constructing history and identity in Xena

My thesis analyzes the construction of history and identity in the pop-culture television show Xena: Warrior Princess ( XWP). I argue that the implicit allegory of XWP that history and identity exist as interpretable and revisable narratives. I use the character Gabrielle's chronicling of Xena's adventures to show how historical narratives are consciously constructed by historians to tell one specific version of events. I then use her mediation of the major characters to depict how historians also construct the characters of history. I then show that similarly, all people read and are read by others, and that these readings influence identity construction. XWP shows that identity originates outside the self and is a product of constant dialog between the self and the other.