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Obama and the Paradigm Shift

Measuring Change

Herausgeber: Christ, Birte | Olson, Greta

American Studies – A Monograph Series, Bd. 225

2012

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Abstract

This book asks if Barack Obama’s election as the 44th President of the United States represented a paradigmatic shift in the political and cultural tides. It works to move beyond a renewed acknowledgement of the extraordinary symbolic value of a black man having become president in a country still rife with racial problems. Specifically, ‘Obama and the Paradigm Shift’ investigates those areas of cultural politics in which Obama’s election to the U.S. presidency were expected to make the greatest impact. These include racial politics, normative forms of masculinity and femininity, and an abatement of the divisiveness of the political climate. Outside of the United States, the volume questions the degree to which these phenomena have affected related areas in German culture. Adopting a trans-Atlantic perspective, ‘Obama and the Paradigm Shift’ reflects on ways the presidency has impacted on German cultural politics particularly regarding women in power and a politics of affect.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

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Acknowledgements 7
Contents 9
Greta Olson - Introduction: What Has the Obama Presidency Changed? 11
Thomas C. Holt - Reflections on the Problem of Race in the Age of Obama 35
M. Michaela Hampf - The Right to Bare Arms: Reading Michelle Obama’s Public Image 55
Gabriele Dietze - Barack Obama’s “Identity Performance” and the Intersection of Race and Gender during the Nomination Battle against Hillary Clinton 81
Greta Olson - Weighing In on Obama: Connections between Embodiment, Class, and Masculinity in the United States and Germany 105
Andreas Falke - Obama and Paradigm Change? No Way to Escape the Political Divide 141
Birte Christ - Michelle Obama, the Good American and Icon of Global Power Femininity 167
Helend Bond - Shattering Ceilings Worldwide 197
Michael Butter - The Birthers’ New World Order: Conspiracy Theories about Barack Obama 225
Jörn Ahrens - Images of the Political: Obama and Post-Democracy 247
Sabine Sielke - The Poetics of Presidency and the Promises of Change: Reading Barack Obama 267
Allyson Hobbs - Conclusion: A Paradigm Shift in Fits and Starts 287
List of Contributors 297