Rhetoric and Democratic Deliberation. Confessional Crises and Cultural Politics in Twentieth-Century America / / Dave Tell.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn State University Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2014
• VerfasserIn: Tell, Dave,
• Place / Publishing House: University Park, PA : : Penn State University Press, , [2015]; ©2013
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Language: English
• Series: Rhetoric and Democratic Deliberation ; 5
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (248 p.)

Confessional Crises and Cultural Politics in Twentieth-Century America revolutionizes how we think about confession and its ubiquitous place in American culture. It argues that the sheer act of labeling a text a confession has become one of the most powerful, and most overlooked, forms of intervening in American cultural politics. In the twentieth century alone, the genre of confession has profoundly shaped (and been shaped by) six of America’s most intractable cultural issues: sexuality, class, race, violence, religion, and democracy.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Confessional Crises and Cultural Politics -- 1. Confession and Sexuality: True Story Versus Anthony Comstock -- 2. Confession and Class: A New True Story -- 3. Confession and Race: Civil Rights, Segregation, and the Murder of Emmett Till -- 4. Confession and Violence: William Styron’s Nat Turner -- 5. Confession and Religion: Jimmy Swaggart’s Secular Confession -- 6. Confession and Democracy: Clinton, Starr, and the Witch-Hunt Tradition of American Confession -- Conclusion: James Frey and Twenty-First-Century Confessional Culture -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index