The First Lady in Contemporary Popular Culture

Evans, Anne-Marie (EDT)/ Trott, Sarah (EDT)

Bloomsbury Academic USA（2026/04発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 216 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9798765142233

Full Description

From Martha Washington to Jill Biden, Mars Attacks! to Scandal, and the Ladies' Home Journal to Vogue this diverse collection examines how the nation's First Lady has become an important cultural icon within an underestimated yet symbolic position in US social politics and culture.

Academic work on the First Lady has tended to be historical or biographical in approach, but The First Lady in Contemporary Popular Culture takes the field in a new direction by focusing instead on representations of the First Lady. It explores how real and imaginary American First Ladies have been represented, reconsidered, and re-imagined by different writers, filmmakers, and fashion designers. Despite her apparent marginal position at the periphery of US politics, as this collection shows, representations of the First Lady have become increasingly significant on the cultural stage in the 21st century.

Using a range of feminist, cultural, media, postmodern, race, and communication-based perspectives, the contributors suggest new ways of understanding the First Lady and the complexities of her office. The authors explore campaign autobiographies, Curtis Sittenfeld's speculative fiction, James Patterson's on-the-run thrillers, as well as atypical representations of the First Lady, such as in Roland Emmerich's box office hit Independence Day (1996), gossip magazines, and historical fashion plates.

Removed from the patriarchal hierarchy of White House politics and expectations, the First Lady emerges as a cultural force of her own and this collection demonstrates how she subtly carves out cultural agency and gender identity despite her perceived (in)visibility in the public eye.

Contents

Introduction
Sarah Trott and Anne-Marie Evans, York St John University, UK
1. Performing First Lady: Representations of Jacqueline Kennedy on Screen
Aysha Iqbal Viswamohan, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India
2. Fantasy and Authenticity: The First Lady in Philip K. Dick's The Simulacra
James Britton, University of Miami, USA
3. Oliver Stone's First Ladies: From Jackie O to Pat Nixon and Laura Bush
Ian Scott, University of Manchester, UK
4. On the Edge of Disaster: First Ladies at the End of the World in Mars Attacks! and Independence Day
Lauren Stephenson, York St John University, UK
5. Ideology and Agency: Alice Blackwell as a Fantasy Version of Laura Bush in the Novel American Wife
Lisa Beckelhimer, University of Cincinnati, USA
6. The Mom-in-chief on the Side-stage: Making Michelle Obama 'Just Like Us' in Celebrity Gossip Magazines
Andrea McDonnell, Providence College, USA
7. Romancing the First Lady
Anne-Marie Evans, York St John University, UK
8. First Ladies Who Never Were: Alternative Histories, Unprecedented Evil, and the Power of the Office
Suzanne Manizza Roszak, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
9. "An intimate look"?: Aspirant First Ladies and the Campaign Autobiography
Finn Pollard, University of Lincoln, UK
10. "Everything's Coming Up Mellie": Reconfiguring the Rape of Scandal's First Lady from Humanizing Plot Device to Genuine Trauma
Sarah Trott, York St John University, UK
11. First Ladies in Vogue: Reinforcing or Breaking Gender Stereotypes?
Amy Tatum, Bournemouth University, UK

Notes on Contributors
Index