Synopses & Reviews
Bloody, fiery spectaclesandmdash;the Challenger disaster, 9/11, JFKandrsquo;s assassinationandmdash;have given us moments of catastrophe that make it easy to answer the andldquo;where were you whenandrdquo; question and shape our ways of seeing what came before and after. Why are these spectacles so packed with meaning?
In The Iconoclastic Imagination, Ned Oandrsquo;Gorman approaches each of these moments as an image of icon-destruction that give us distinct ways to imagine social existence in American life. He argues that the Cold War gave rise to crises in political, aesthetic, and political-aesthetic representations. Locating all of these crises within a andldquo;neoliberal imaginary,andrdquo; Oandrsquo;Gorman explains that since the Kennedy assassination, the most powerful way to see andldquo;Americaandrdquo; has been in the destruction of representative American symbols or icons. This, in turn, has profound implications for a neoliberal economy, social philosophy, and public policy. Richly interwoven with philosophical, theological, and rhetorical traditions, the book offers a new foundation for a complex and innovative approach to studying Cold War America, political theory, and visual culture.
Review
andldquo;Oandrsquo;Gorman is an elegant, critically rigorous, and accessible writer who situates insightful textual analyses within historical and theoretical discussions. The Iconoclastic Imagination focuses interdisciplinary attention to the relationships between visuality, contemporary politics, and neoliberalism that will, no doubt, contribute to recent reconsiderations of the Cold War and postandndash;Cold War periods. This is a beautifully written discussion of the complexly interwoven philosophical and political traditions of both iconoclasm and the sublime in recent American history.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Oandrsquo;Gorman is setting out a powerful argument about American public culture, and one that contributes directly to current reconsiderations of visual representation, political aesthetics, media coverage of disasters, and cultural change.and#160;By exploring neoliberalismandrsquo;s deep affinity with iconoclasm, this book reveals how ideology runs deeper than economic doctrine, how image analysis is a vital resource for social theory, and why catastrophe may become one of the characteristic themes of the twenty-first century.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Oandrsquo;Gorman offers a vital new reading of the andlsquo;where were you whenandrsquo; image-event in the era of neoliberal structural adjustment.andnbsp;Showing both the formation and limits of an American political culture increasingly reliant on the image to articulate the very terms of violence, The Iconoclastic Imagination is a provocative and timely intervention.andrdquo;
Synopsis
In the past few decades, thousands of new memorials to executed witches, victims of terrorism, and dead astronauts, along with those that pay tribute to civil rights, organ donors, and the end of Communism have dotted the American landscape. Equally ubiquitous, though until now less the subject of serious inquiry, are temporary memorials: spontaneous offerings of flowers and candles that materialize at sites of tragic and traumatic death. In Memorial Mania, Erika Doss argues that these memorials underscore our obsession with issues of memory and history, and the urgent desire to expressand#8212;and claimand#8212;those issues in visibly public contexts.
Doss shows how this desire to memorialize the past disposes itself to individual anniversaries and personal grievances, to stories of tragedy and trauma, and to the social and political agendas of diverse numbers of Americans. By offering a framework for understanding these sites, Doss engages the larger issues behind our culture of commemoration. Driven by heated struggles over identity and the politics of representation, Memorial Mania is a testament to the fevered pitch of public feelings in America today.
Synopsis
Bloody and fiery spectacles in American public life, from the 1960s to the present, have given us moments of catastrophe thatand#160; easily answer to the question of andldquo;where-were-you-when,andrdquo;and#160; events that shape our ways of seeing the Cold War and after.and#160; Three such iconic catastrophes are the John F. Kennedy assassination, the response by Ronald Reagan to the Challenger disaster, and 9/11.and#160; Why are these spectacles so packed with meaning?and#160; They are images of destruction, raising the questions for us of where their power comes from, what sort of history might they construct, what sort of world do they destroy.and#160; Oandrsquo;Gorman approaches each one as an icon of iconoclasm, as an exemplar of fiery demise that gives us a distinct way to imagine social existence in American life.and#160; Here is his argument:and#160; in the 50 years since the Kennedy assassination, a period that witnessed the rise of neoliberalism, the most powerful way for publics to see andldquo;Americaandrdquo; was in the destruction of its representative symbols, or icons, because in such catastrophes we grasp the impossibility of any image adequate to representing America.and#160; If neoliberalismandmdash;the emergence of free market economics in social philosophy and public policyandmdash;is linked with iconoclasm, that is, if neoliberalism promotes and benefits from the destruction of icons, we are led to reconsider events that seem to rupture a given world (catastrophes), or are beyond representation (the economy).and#160; Market ideology moves to a transcendent realm of invisible principles that can escape accountability and command sacrifice.and#160; The core arguments are challenging (indeed, iconoclastic), but this book will put a whole new kind of spotlight on andldquo;neoliberalismandrdquo; and on the status of the image (and visual representation) in American political culture.and#160; The results are stunning:and#160; richly interwoven philosophical, theological, and rhetorical traditions turn out to be a basis for a complex and innovative approach to Cold War America, political theory, and visual culture studies.
About the Author
Erika Doss is professor of American studies at the University of Notre Dame and the author of Benton, Pollock, and the Politics of Modernism: From Regionalism to Abstract Expressionism, also published by the University of Chicago Press, among other titles.
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Statue Mania to Memorial Mania: Scope of the Subject
2. Grief: Temporary Memorials and Contemporary Modes of Mourning
3. Fear: Terrorism Memorials and Security Narratives
4. Gratitude: Memorializing World War II and the "Greatest Generation"
5. Shame: Duluthand#8217;s Lynching Memorial and Issues of National Morality
6. Anger: Contesting American Identity in Contemporary Memorial Culture
Notes
Index