The Presidents of American Fiction - Fashioning the U.S. Political Imagination

The Presidents of American Fiction brings together American literature, history, and political science to explore the most influential fictionalized accounts of the Presidency from the early 19th century to the time of Trump. Of late, popular understandings of the Presidency are being radically re-written-consider, for example, the distinctive myths that accompanied the ascent of the Obama and Trump administrations-and many readers of all stripes are radically reimagining the office and its holder. Placing these changes within a broader cultural context, Michael J. Blouin investigates narratives involving fictional Presidents, from the supposedly factual to the outright fantastical, within their distinct literary and historical moments. The author considers representative texts including works penned by James Fenimore Cooper from the Jacksonian moment, Gore Vidal in the age of Nixon and Vietnam, and Philip Roth in the neoliberal period. Through detailed readings that question how American Presidents function as characters within the popular imagination, this book examines the Presidency as a complex, ever-evolving trope, and in so doing enhances our appreciation of American literature''s inextricable link with American politics.>

Product details

• Authors: Michael J Blouin, Michael J. Blouin
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.12.2022
• EAN: 9781501381706
• ISBN: 978-1-5013-8170-6
• No. of pages: 224
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; USA, LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / American Government / Executive Branch, LITERARY CRITICISM / Subjects & Themes / Politics, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / General, Social and cultural history, United States of America, USA, Literary studies: general, Political science and theory, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers