Configuring America: Iconic Figures, Visuality, and the American IdentityKlausRieser, MichaelFuchs, and MichaelPhillips, Editors. Chicago, IL: Intellect, University of Chicago Press, 2013.

Abstract

Configuring America: Iconic Figures, Visuality, and the American Identity Klaus Rieser, Michael Fuchs, and Michael Phillips, Editors. Chicago, IL: Intellect, University of Chicago Press, 2013.In this edited volume, twelve chapters examine American from real-life figures such as Joe Louis and LeBron to imaged such as Captain America and Uncle Sam. Although studies on heroes and tend to focus on representation, Configuring America analyzes visuality to better understand the significance of these heroes and in the society, more than just what an individual means through his or her (and sometimes its) rep res enta ti vity. All the contributors agree that iconic figures maintain a symbolic role, not necessarily for who they are, but rather for what they are constructed to signify. This signification is two-fold. On one level, it is mediated by the (imagined) lived experience of the iconic figure. On another level, personifications of these lived experiences enable them to transcend the distinction between the real and the virtual (5). Through this process of abstractions and condensations, an image is conjured up, which is how iconic figures are different from politicians, bestselling authors, and other types of celebrities and makes James Dean and Madonna have more in common with Superman or Uncle Sam than with canonical literary or scientific figures (4).The focus of the book is American icons. This choice complicates the matter at hand. American icons, by definition, seem to reflect American exceptio nalism. They supposedly reflect what makes the US the US, or what makes the nation unique. However, these iconic figures are iconic because a majority of Americans have agreed to consider them to be American, a very concept that is nothing but imagined and is an outcome of a collective consciousness. Therefore, they simultaneously configure, reflect, and reconfigure American national identity.Configuring America advances two hypotheses. The first is that icons condense aspects relevant to everyday life (the ordinary) into an extraordinary form (8). Grace Kelly and Superman, who are examined respectively by Ana Salzberg and Keith Murphy, are used to support this hypothesis. Kelly is a paradoxical figure who underplayed the glory and fairy tale qualities of her own life which simultaneously generated her image as a fairy tale figure. Similarly, Superman's S logo or the outstretched arms are ordinary signs that have been turned into an extraordinary form of signification. The second hypothesis is that icons play a double role in the hegemonic processes, being tied both to of power and the (10). This means the must be accepted by the nodes of power, including the academics and journalists while they must also be relevant to and accepted by the public (13). …