Description
Book SynopsisFedwa Malti-Douglas reveals how The Starr Report exposed the cultural tendencies, desires, and taboos of Americans while it disrobed the most powerful man in the world. Fraught with assumptions about gender and sexuality, the report reflects a strategy to use Clinton's "body natural" to undermine his "body politic."
Trade ReviewWriting with wit, verve, and sharp perception, Fedwa Malti-Douglas provides fresh ways of understanding the Starr Report in relation to lasting issues of gender relations, narrative technique, and attitudes toward the body. Her deft cultural and textual analysis will give her readers lasting insight as well as immediate pleasure. -- Patricia Meyer Spacks, author of Advocacy in the Classroom I read The Starr Report with horrified fascination. With force and brio, the brilliant Fedwa Malti-Douglas tells us why. Stripped bare, the body of The Starr Report is very, disturbingly American. -- Catharine R. Stimpson, Director, MacArthur Fellows Program A masterful dissection of a politically and culturally crucial document. -- Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Note Introduction 1. The Mighty Morphin Report 2. Organization as Obsession 3. He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: The Geographies of Lust 4. The Great Facilitator: Or, How to "Currie" Favor 5. Are We Having Fun Yet? 6. Fall Into the Gap: Or, The Starr Report Introduces Popeye to Bill Clinton 7. How Is a Sexual Encounter a Sexual Encounter? 8. "I Love the Narrative!" 9. My Body, My Gender 10. An American Postmodern Conclusion: The President's Two Bodies and the Politics of Masquerade Index
