Fathers, Warriors, and Vigilantes ─ Post-Heroism and the U.S. Cultural Imaginary in the Twenty-First Century

Tanrisever responds to the discrepancy between the notion of an overall, white, masculinist backlash in post-9/11 US culture and her jarring personal reception of many of the texts decried as perpetrators of conservative identity politics for the recuperation of white male hegemony. By revisiting and re-examining three of the most present and debated figures deemed conservative in the contemporary cultural landscape of heroism--fathers, warriors, and vigilantes--she illustrates the complex current negotiations of identity in order to highlight the progressive and at times subversive qualities of popular US literature and visual culture, and to argue for moments of empowerment and agency via re-signification in and through the act of reception. Annotation ©2017 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)