A Not So Foreign Affair: Fascism, Sexuality, and the Cultural Rhetoric of American Democracy - Softcover

"This book had me riveted. With a careful balance of broad theoretical claims, historical specificity, and close textual readings, Slane makes connections across the history of sexuality and its surrounding political and cultural discourses that are indeed impressive. Hers is a subtle and penetrating critique."-Sharon Willis, author of High Contrast: Race and Gender in Contemporary Hollywood Film "Slane writes elegantly, clearly, and with a careful rigor out of which come startling observations. A Not So Foreign Affair situates itself within a new and very important field in which contemporary conservatism is given the same kind of sophisticated theoretical treatment as avant-garde work has received in the past."-Linda Kintz, author of Between Jesus and the Market: The Emotions that Matter in Right-Wing America

In A Not So Foreign Affair Andrea Slane investigates the influence of images of Nazism on debates about sexuality that are central to contemporary American political rhetoric. By analyzing an array of films, journalism, scholarly theories, melodrama, video, and propaganda literature, Slane describes a common rhetoric that emerged during the 1930s and 1940s as a means of distinguishing "democratic sexuality" from that ascribed to Nazi Germany. World War II marked a turning point in the cultural rhetoric of democracy, Slane claims, because it intensified a preoccupation with the political role of private life and pushed sexuality to the center of democratic discourse. Having created tremendous anxiety-and fascination-in American culture, Nazism became associated with promiscuity, sexual perversionand the destruction of the family. Slane reveals how this particular imprint of fascism is used in progressive as well as conservative imagery and language to further their domestic agendas and shows how our cultural engagement with Nazism reflects the inherent tension in democracy between the value of diversity, individual freedoms national identity, and notions of the common good. Finally, she applies her analysis of wartime narratives to contemporary texts, examining anti-abortion, anti-gay, and anti-federal rhetoric, as well as the psychic life of skinheads, censorship debates, and the contemporary fascination with incest. An invaluable resource for understanding the language we use-both visual and narrative-to describe and debate democracy in the United States today, A Not So Foreign Affair will appeal to those interested in cultural studies, film and video studies, American studies, twentieth century history, German studies, rhetoric, and sexuality studies.