Deconstructing Reaganism

Deconstructing Reaganism PDF Author: Douglas E. Forster
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443860778
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
As in so many other areas of American society, the political legacy of Ronald Reagan had an imposing presence in many contemporary American films, particularly between 1980 and 2000. Six films, which collectively represent the spectrum of Reaganism’s most popular tropes, demonstrate quite compellingly that in celebrating nostalgically the blissful pleasantries of family stability and social order so essential to Reagan’s political philosophy, an unsettling and unsatisfying mythology has been created about a period in which many Americans were acutely aware that something was missing, even if they could not pinpoint it at the time. This leads the critical viewer to largely unacknowledged subtexts in all six films that begin to reveal the contradictions, incoherencies, and paradoxes rooted in popular Reaganesque portrayals. Utilising a detailed qualitative case study methodology, this book incorporates theoretical foundations that expand upon Fairclough’s path-breaking research on media discourse and Todorov’s broadly articulated framework of fantasy in order to explore: 1) Which elements of Fairclough’s framework for critical discourse analysis can be applied to explore the discursive structures within these American fantasy films? 2) How far do the films follow Reaganist concepts of a “new” American society? 3) How far do notions of the “fantastic” and postmodern concepts break with common patterns of Reaganism reflected in these films? While many critics rightly cite the numerous elements in these films that appear to reinforce fundamental message points underlying Reaganism, this study demonstrates how the films’ characters and plot lines also serve to reveal the inherent and irreconcilable incoherence of the sociopolitical and sociocultural tenets of Reaganism.

Deconstructing Reaganism

Deconstructing Reaganism PDF Author: Douglas E. Forster
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443860778
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Get Book Here

Book Description
As in so many other areas of American society, the political legacy of Ronald Reagan had an imposing presence in many contemporary American films, particularly between 1980 and 2000. Six films, which collectively represent the spectrum of Reaganism’s most popular tropes, demonstrate quite compellingly that in celebrating nostalgically the blissful pleasantries of family stability and social order so essential to Reagan’s political philosophy, an unsettling and unsatisfying mythology has been created about a period in which many Americans were acutely aware that something was missing, even if they could not pinpoint it at the time. This leads the critical viewer to largely unacknowledged subtexts in all six films that begin to reveal the contradictions, incoherencies, and paradoxes rooted in popular Reaganesque portrayals. Utilising a detailed qualitative case study methodology, this book incorporates theoretical foundations that expand upon Fairclough’s path-breaking research on media discourse and Todorov’s broadly articulated framework of fantasy in order to explore: 1) Which elements of Fairclough’s framework for critical discourse analysis can be applied to explore the discursive structures within these American fantasy films? 2) How far do the films follow Reaganist concepts of a “new” American society? 3) How far do notions of the “fantastic” and postmodern concepts break with common patterns of Reaganism reflected in these films? While many critics rightly cite the numerous elements in these films that appear to reinforce fundamental message points underlying Reaganism, this study demonstrates how the films’ characters and plot lines also serve to reveal the inherent and irreconcilable incoherence of the sociopolitical and sociocultural tenets of Reaganism.

Deconstructing Reagan

Deconstructing Reagan PDF Author: Kyle Longley
Publisher: M.E. Sharpe
ISBN: 9780765615916
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
Although he left office, Ronald Reagan remains a potent symbol for the conservative movement. This work presents the study of the interplay of politics and memory concerning our fortieth president. It scrutinizes key aspects of the Reagan legacy and the conservative mythology that surrounds it.

Deconstructing Reagan

Deconstructing Reagan PDF Author: Kyle Longley
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317473248
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Although he left office nearly 20 years ago, Ronald Reagan remains a potent symbol for the conservative movement. The Bush administration frequently invokes his legacy as it formulates and promotes its fiscal, domestic, and foreign policies. His name is watchword for campus conservatives who regard him in a way that borders on hero worship. Conservative media pundits often equate the term "Reagan-esque" with personal honor, fiscal rectitude, and unqualified success in dealing with foreign threats. But how much of the Reagan legacy is based on fact, how much on idealized myth? And what are the reasons - political and otherwise - behind the mythmaking? "Deconstructing Reagan" is a fascinating study of the interplay of politics and memory concerning our fortieth president. While giving credit where credit is due, the authors scrutinize key aspects of the Reagan legacy and the conservative mythology that surrounds it.

Deconstructing Wikileaks

Deconstructing Wikileaks PDF Author: Daniel Estulin
Publisher: Trine Day
ISBN: 1937584127
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
Depending on the source, Julian Assange, the editor in chief of WikiLeaks, is regarded as either a genius or terrorist, and this exploration of the man and the organization seeks to find the truth. Delving into the heart of the business of keeping and leaking secrets, this work shows how the enterprise of WikiLeaks and Assange is shrouded in mystery, but nonetheless, seeks to expose Assange as an intelligence asset tasked with sustaining the global status quo. Through careful analysis, interviews, and scrutiny of the organization as a whole, this inquiry gets to the bottom of the intriguing and mesmerizing story behind WikiLeaks.

The Myth of Alzheimer's

The Myth of Alzheimer's PDF Author: Peter J. Whitehouse, M.D.
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0312368178
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Challenges conventional perceptions about Alzheimer's disease to offer readers alternative approaches to memory loss and aging that can be aided through simple nutritional and exercise strategies.

Deconstructing Paradise

Deconstructing Paradise PDF Author: Patricia E. Reagan
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498524729
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
Deconstructing Paradise investigates Christian symbols that appear in Latin American Literature in an inverted way. The texts under investigation invert the Christian center to generate a social, political, cultural, or even artistic commentary. In doing so, each text underscores a search for meaning that rejects the centering presence of the more traditional Christian focus that has long validated humankind’s existence both in society and in literature. As Deconstructing Paradise examines, finding a unified center around which to construct meaning is no longer possible, although the search for meaning persists in the inverted Christian center. The first three chapters analyze the trifecta of novels that offer a full allegory of inverted Christian symbolism including: Miguel Ángel Asturias’ El Señor Presidente; Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo and José Donoso’s El lugar sin límites. Chapters Four and Five focus on inverted Christ and inverted Judas figures in multiple novels and short fiction. As many Latin American literary critics affirm, it is increasingly difficult to categorize fiction after the Boom, although even the usefulness of these categories is ultimately questionable. Literary critics now look for patterns and Deconstructing Paradise offers one such pattern by identifying a trend in an impressive scope of the well-known authors of twentieth-century Latin American literature, while also tracing this pattern back to nineteenth-century precursors. Deconstructing Paradise offers a unique and comprehensive look at a significant trend that will undoubtedly foment new ideas and paths of study in contemporary Latin American literature.

Deconstructing Development Discourse

Deconstructing Development Discourse PDF Author: Andrea Cornwall
Publisher: Practical Action Pub
ISBN: 9781853397066
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Andrea Cornwall is Professor of Anthropology and Development in the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex. --

Echoes of Reaganism in Hollywood Blockbuster Movies from the 1980s to The 2010s

Echoes of Reaganism in Hollywood Blockbuster Movies from the 1980s to The 2010s PDF Author: Ilias Ben Mna
Publisher: Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler Verlag Der Wissenschaften
ISBN: 9783631837801
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
The book traces the reverberations of Ronald Reagan's ideology in selected Hollywood blockbuster movies. The analysis includes filmic content as well as production and distribution. It is concluded that political metaphors and an economic setting inherited from the 1980s continue to shape the style and content of Hollywood blockbuster filmmak...

A Brief History of Neoliberalism

A Brief History of Neoliberalism PDF Author: David Harvey
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019162294X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Neoliberalism - the doctrine that market exchange is an ethic in itself, capable of acting as a guide for all human action - has become dominant in both thought and practice throughout much of the world since 1970 or so. Its spread has depended upon a reconstitution of state powers such that privatization, finance, and market processes are emphasized. State interventions in the economy are minimized, while the obligations of the state to provide for the welfare of its citizens are diminished. David Harvey, author of 'The New Imperialism' and 'The Condition of Postmodernity', here tells the political-economic story of where neoliberalization came from and how it proliferated on the world stage. While Thatcher and Reagan are often cited as primary authors of this neoliberal turn, Harvey shows how a complex of forces, from Chile to China and from New York City to Mexico City, have also played their part. In addition he explores the continuities and contrasts between neoliberalism of the Clinton sort and the recent turn towards neoconservative imperialism of George W. Bush. Finally, through critical engagement with this history, Harvey constructs a framework not only for analyzing the political and economic dangers that now surround us, but also for assessing the prospects for the more socially just alternatives being advocated by many oppositional movements.

Unsettling the Settler Within

Unsettling the Settler Within PDF Author: Paulette Regan
Publisher: UBC Press
ISBN: 0774859644
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
In 2008 the Canadian government apologized to the victims of the notorious Indian residential school system, and established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission whose goal was to mend the deep rifts between Aboriginal peoples and the settler society that engineered the system. Unsettling the Settler Within argues that in order to truly participate in the transformative possibilities of reconciliation, non-Aboriginal Canadians must undergo their own process of decolonization. They must relinquish the persistent myth of themselves as peacemakers and acknowledge the destructive legacy of a society that has stubbornly ignored and devalued Indigenous experience. Today’s truth and reconciliation processes must make space for an Indigenous historical counter-narrative in order to avoid perpetuating a colonial relationship between Aboriginal and settler peoples. A compassionate call to action, this powerful book offers all Canadians – both Indigenous and not – a new way of approaching the critical task of healing the wounds left by the residential school system.