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OverviewThe 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. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Professor or Dr. Michael J. Blouin (Associate Professor, Milligan University, USA)Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic USA Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.454kg ISBN: 9781501381706ISBN 10: 1501381709 Pages: 224 Publication Date: 01 December 2022 Audience: College/higher education , Tertiary & Higher Education Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Manufactured on demand  We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier. Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Moving Portraits of the President 1. James Fenimore Cooper’s Exceptional Presidents 2. George Lippard and the Gothic President 3. Williams Wells Brown and the Disembodied President 4. The President in Books for Boys 5. The President in Books for Girls 6. Hamlin Garland, Ulysses S. Grant, and the Tortured Heart of American Realism 7. Gore Vidal and the Performative Presidency 8. The Imperial Presidents of American Literature Epilogue: George Saunders and Presidential Melancholia References IndexReviewsMichael Blouin has written a truly remarkable, and remarkably important, study of the American presidency here, treating major representations of the chief executive in works of fiction over nearly two centuries but looking beyond these visions as well. He takes into account the notion of 'presidentialism' itself, inviting us to see the office itself as a kind of necessary fiction, one that functions oddly in a supposedly democratic nation. Blouin's book is, I think, a hugely interesting and important contribution to the aesthetics of politics, and it sheds light on how we live our corporate lives - not something one often sees in an academic study. This book deserves a wide and appreciative audience. * Jay Parini, Professor of English and Creative Writing, Middlebury College, USA, and author Empire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal (2016) and Borges and Me (2021) * Author InformationMichael J. Blouin is Associate Professor of English and the Humanities at Milligan University, USA, where he co-founded and now directs the Honors Program. He serves as chair for Literature, Politics, and Society for the Popular Culture Association (PCA/ACA), and is the author of Stephen King and American Politics (2021) and Mass-Market Fiction and the Crisis of American Liberalism, 1972 – 2017 (2018). Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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