This Is not a President
Sense, Nonsense, and the American Political Imaginary
Published on 1. January 2008
Book
Hardback
299 pages
978-0-8147-7602-5 (ISBN)
Description
Read The Chronicle of Higher Ed Author Interview
In This Is Not a President, Diane Rubenstein looks at the postmodern presidency - from Reagan and George H. W. Bush, through the current administration, and including Hillary. Focusing on those seemingly inexplicable gaps or blind spots in recent American presidential politics, Rubenstein interrogates symptomatic moments in political rhetoric, popular culture, and presidential behavior to elucidate profound and disturbing changes in the American presidency and the way it embodies a national imaginary.
In a series of essays written in real time over the past four presidential administrations, Rubenstein traces the vernacular use of the American presidency (as currency, as grist for popular biography, as fictional TV material) to explore the ways in which the American presidency functions as a "transitional object" that allows the American citizen to meet or discover the president while going about her everyday life. The book argues that it is French theory - primarily Lacanian psychoanalysis and the radical semiotic theories of Jean Baudrillard - that best accounts for American political life today. Through episodes as diverse as Iran Contra, George H. W. Bush vomiting in Japan, the 1992 Republican convention, the failed nomination of Lani Guinier, and the Iraq War, This Is Not a President brilliantly situates our collective investment in American political culture.
In This Is Not a President, Diane Rubenstein looks at the postmodern presidency - from Reagan and George H. W. Bush, through the current administration, and including Hillary. Focusing on those seemingly inexplicable gaps or blind spots in recent American presidential politics, Rubenstein interrogates symptomatic moments in political rhetoric, popular culture, and presidential behavior to elucidate profound and disturbing changes in the American presidency and the way it embodies a national imaginary.
In a series of essays written in real time over the past four presidential administrations, Rubenstein traces the vernacular use of the American presidency (as currency, as grist for popular biography, as fictional TV material) to explore the ways in which the American presidency functions as a "transitional object" that allows the American citizen to meet or discover the president while going about her everyday life. The book argues that it is French theory - primarily Lacanian psychoanalysis and the radical semiotic theories of Jean Baudrillard - that best accounts for American political life today. Through episodes as diverse as Iran Contra, George H. W. Bush vomiting in Japan, the 1992 Republican convention, the failed nomination of Lani Guinier, and the Iraq War, This Is Not a President brilliantly situates our collective investment in American political culture.
Reviews / Votes
In a series of bravura performances, Rubenstein reads presidents through Baudrillard and Lacan, providing at once a narrative of the administrations and . . . the field's development over the past two decades. (American Quarterly) Rubenstein is without rival in her brilliant use of psychoanalytic theory for political science. No one since Michael Rogin has written so incisively about the American presidency and American popular culture. This Is Not a President radically transforms ones understanding of American political discourse. - Anne Norton,University of Pennsylvania A provocative analysis of the place of the U.S. presidency in contemporary times. . . . Recommended. (Choice)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
8 black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
601 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8147-7602-5 (9780814776025)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Diane Rubenstein is Professor of Government and American Studies at Cornell University, and the author of What's Left?: The Ecole Normale Superieure and the Right.
Content
Acknowledgments Introduction: My Own Private Presidents Organizational Note The Mirror of Reproduction: Baudrillard and Reagan's America Oliver North and the Lying Nose This Is Not a President: Baudrillard, Bush, and Enchanted Simulation Bush, the Man Who Sununu Too Much: Male Trouble and Presidential Subjectivity "Chicks with Dicks": Transgendering the Presidency "Honey, I Shrunk the President": Psychoanalysis, Postmodernism, and the Clinton Presidency "Father, Can't You See I'm Bombing?" A Bush Family Romance Hillary Regained Notes Index About the Author