The Queen of America Goes to Washington City: Essays on Sex and Citizenship (Series Q)
Assailing the privatization of citizenship and the idealization of the citizen as a child, Berlant (English, Univ. of Chicago)  criticizes a national political discourse that has shifted from public-sphere issues like economic inequities to the private realm of sexual intimacy. Berlant argues that the Reagan revolution based the redefinition of citizenship and national identity on a politicized private sphere overseen by a federal government increasingly less committed to social justice. She illustrates her argument with examples from television programs such as The Simpsons and the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill congressional hearings. Still, she does not adequately explore whether the privatization of citizenship has occurred because historically white, middle-class American male heterosexism has been so pervasive. A scholarly study; recommended for academic collections in American culture studies.?Charles L. Lumpkins, Bloomsburg Univ. Lib., Pa.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.