Containment Culture: American Narratives, Postmodernism, and the Atomic AgeDuke University Press, 1995 - 332 pages Alan Nadel provides a unique analysis of the rise of American postmodernism by viewing it as a breakdown in Cold War cultural narratives of containment. These narratives, which embodied an American postwar foreign policy charged with checking the spread of Communism, also operated, Nadel argues, within a wide spectrum of cultural life in the United States to contain atomic secrets, sexual license, gender roles, nuclear energy, and artistic expression. Because these narratives were deployed in films, books, and magazines at a time when American culture was for the first time able to dominate global entertainment and capitalize on global production, containment became one of the most widely disseminated and highly privileged national narratives in history. Examining a broad sweep of American culture, from the work of George Kennan to Playboy Magazine, from the movies of Doris Day and Walt Disney to those of Cecil B. DeMille and Alfred Hitchcock, from James Bond to Holden Caulfield, Nadel discloses the remarkable pervasiveness of the containment narrative. Drawing subtly on insights provided by contemporary theorists, including Baudrillard, Foucault, Jameson, Sedgwick, Certeau, and Hayden White, he situates the rhetoric of the Cold War within a gendered narrative powered by the unspoken potency of the atom. He then traces the breakdown of this discourse of containment through such events as the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley, and ties its collapse to the onset of American postmodernism, typified by works such as Catch–22 and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. An important work of cultural criticism, Containment Culture links atomic power with postmodernism and postwar politics, and shows how a multifarious national policy can become part of a nation’s cultural agenda and a source of meaning for its citizenry. |
Contents
Appearance Containment and Atomic Power | 13 |
History Science and Hiroshima | 38 |
CONTAINMENT CULTURE | 69 |
Rhetoric Sanity and the Cold War the Significance of Holden Caulfields Testimony | 71 |
Gods Law and the Wide Screen The Ten Commandments as Cold War Epic | 90 |
Lady and or The Tramp Sexual Containment and the Domestic Playboy | 117 |
DOUBLE OR NOTHING | 155 |
The Invasion of Postmodernism The Catch22 of the Bay of Pigs and Liberty Valance | 157 |
TWO NATIONS TOO | 221 |
My Country Too Time Place and African American Identity in the Work of John A Williams | 223 |
Race Rights Gender and Personal Narrative The Archaeology of Self in Meridian | 245 |
DEMOCRACY | 273 |
Failed Cultural Narratives America in the Postwar Era and the Story of Democracy | 275 |
Conclusion | 297 |
Notes | 301 |
Bibliography | 315 |
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Containment Culture: American Narratives, Postmodernism, and the Atomic Age Alan Nadel Limited preview - 1995 |
Common terms and phrases
actions activity African American American argue asserts atomic power attempts audience authority Bay of Pigs becomes Berkeley Bithiah body bomb Brad Caulfield Certeau chapter Christian Clevinger cold cold war constructed containment context created Cuba Cuban cultural narratives deMille deMille's democracy Derrida Didion difference discourse domestic Donophon dual nature example fiction film frame Free Speech Movement gaze gender Hersey Hersey's Hiroshima Holden Caulfield Hollywood identifies implies impossible Inez invasion J. D. Salinger James Bond Joan Didion Kennan Lady legible magazine Meridian metanarrative Moses movie narration national narrative novel nuclear performance perspective Pillow Talk Playboy political postmodern problem reader relationship representation represented rhetoric role Sephora sexual license shot Liberty Valance signified social Soviet speech Stoddard story strategies suggests Tanimoto Ten Commandments tion Tramp truth University Press Vietnam Western wide-screen woman women words writing York Yossarian