The west wing's prime-time presidentiality: Mimesis and catharsis in a postmodern romance

This essay reads the NBC drama The West Wing against the cultural anxieties and ambivalences about the contemporary presidency, arguing that the program presents a powerful and meaningful "presidentiality," a discursive construction of the presidency with ideological and rhetorical relevan...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Quarterly journal of speech 2002-05, Vol.88 (2), p.209-227
Main Authors: Parry-Giles, Trevor, Parry-Giles, Shawn J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
catharsis
Cultural Awareness
Emotional Experience
Federal Government
Ideology
Leadership
mimesis
Political behaviour
Political Power
Political sociology
Politics
Popular Culture
Postmodernism
Presidency
presidentiality
Presidents
rhetorical presidency
romance
Sociology
Television
Television programs
The West Wing
Vision
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Summary:This essay reads the NBC drama The West Wing against the cultural anxieties and ambivalences about the contemporary presidency, arguing that the program presents a powerful and meaningful "presidentiality," a discursive construction of the presidency with ideological and rhetorical relevance. Specifically, The West Wing mimetically captures a view of the presidency, offering, in the process, a romantic vision of the institution that reflects the postmodernity of U.S. politics and the uncertainty that pervades questions of heroism and hierarchy at the turn of the twenty-first century. In part, the political drama disrupts images of traditional power politics, presenting a more chaotic, inclusive, and communal portrayal of the presidency. Against this narrative backdrop, however, we contend that the program situates its postmodern rendition of presidentiality within a cathartic portrayal of the presidency, relying on conservative demarcations of presidential leadership ordered by commitments to intellectualism, militarism, masculinity, and whiteness.
ISSN:0033-5630
1479-5779
DOI:10.1080/00335630209384371