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ConFiguring America brings together a series of incisive essays that analyse a wide range of such figures: those who embody America’s tendency to produce celebrities and iconic personalities with global reach. Drawing on theoretical insights from a variety of fields – including cultural iconography, visual culture, star studies and history – a diverse group of international contributors sheds light on how these figures and their media representations construct America’s image beyond its borders. An important addition to an expanding field, ConFiguring America will deepen readers’ understanding of celebrity, iconography and their worldwide implications.
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Theorizing Iconic Figures
Klaus Rieser
PART I: Icons and the Struggle over Meaning
Chapter 1: ‘Just Like You’, But Not Like Us: Staging National Belonging, Multiracial Femininity, and Collective Memory in the American Girl Family
Karina Eileraas
Chapter 2: Behind the Brown Mask: Joe Louis’ Face and the Construction of Racial Mythologies
Marcy S. Sacks
Chapter 3: LeBron James and the Web of Discourse: Iconic Sports Figures and Semantic Struggles
Michael Fuchs & Michael Phillips
PART II: Appropriating Iconic Figures
Chapter 4: O Superman: The Many Faces of the Man of Steel
Bradley Bailey
Chapter 5: Thirty Are Better Than One: Marilyn Monroe and the Performance of Americanness
Susanne Hamscha
Chapter 6: Queering Cowboys, Queering Futurity: The Re/Construction of American Cowboy Masculinity
Leopold Lippert
Chapter 7: Iconizing Radical Change: How Gary Cooper Led Poland to Freedom
Jolanta Szymkowska-Bartyzel