Reinventing Richard Nixon: Debating Cultural Values and National Identity
Location
Bunch Library, Leu Art Gallery
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
10-9-2008 7:00 PM
Description
Conflicting stories about and images of Richard Nixon have haunted U. S. popular culture for more than half a century. But what motivates this national obsession with reinventing Richard Nixon in literature, film, cartoons, music, and other media? More than just disputing the former president’s significance in U. S. history, these competing representations of Nixon battle one another in promoting certain cultural values and in defining a particular vision of national identity—what the country was, what it is, and what it should be. In other words, when we disagree about Nixon, we are debating about the meaning of America.
Dr. Daniel Frick is Director of the Writing Center and adjunct professor of English at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He teaches courses in rhetoric and American fiction, and his book, Reinventing Richard Nixon: The Cultural History of an American Obsession, has just been published by the University Press of Kansas.
Recommended Citation
Reinventing Richard Nixon: Debating Cultural Values and National Identity
Bunch Library, Leu Art Gallery
Conflicting stories about and images of Richard Nixon have haunted U. S. popular culture for more than half a century. But what motivates this national obsession with reinventing Richard Nixon in literature, film, cartoons, music, and other media? More than just disputing the former president’s significance in U. S. history, these competing representations of Nixon battle one another in promoting certain cultural values and in defining a particular vision of national identity—what the country was, what it is, and what it should be. In other words, when we disagree about Nixon, we are debating about the meaning of America.
Dr. Daniel Frick is Director of the Writing Center and adjunct professor of English at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He teaches courses in rhetoric and American fiction, and his book, Reinventing Richard Nixon: The Cultural History of an American Obsession, has just been published by the University Press of Kansas.
Comments
Convo (AL)
Refreshments to follow