Constructing Clinton: Hyperreality & Presidential Image-Making in Postmodern Politics.

• Author: Bostdorff, Denise M.
• Position: Book Reviews

Constructing Clinton: Hyperreality & Presidential Image-Making in Postmodern Politics. By Shawn J. Parry-Giles and Trevor Parry Giles. New York: Peter Lang, 2002; pp. ix-245. $24.95.

Shawn and Trevor Parry-Giles have completed a well-executed analysis of how Bill Clinton, his surrogates, and the media portrayed this most controversial president. According to the authors, the key to understanding the Clinton presidency is the context of hyperreality in which it occurred, a context in which we are saturated with images, making it difficult-if not downright impossible--to differentiate between what is "real" and what is not. The Parry-Giles argue that "presidentiality," the rhetoric composed by a variety of rhetoric and depicting a variety of perspectives, serves to "shape and order the cultural meaning of the institution of the presidency, ideologically defining the office and its occupants" (p. 3).

To understand the relationship between the images of Clinton and the current state of American politics, Constructing Clinton examines a number of mediated texts: the Clinton campaign film, The Man from Hope; the documentary, The War Room; Clinton's 1996 campaign book, Between Hope and History; the novel and, to a lesser extent, the film Primary Colors; MTV's BIOrhythm documentary of Clinton; and an episode devoted to Clinton in PBS's 1999 series, The American President. Through their careful examination, the Parry-Giles show how messages that have largely been overlooked by rhetorical critics may have exerted a powerful influence on public perceptions of Bill Clinton. Specifically, they reveal the ways in which Clinton's image was organized around the tensions between past and future, masculine and feminine, war and peace, black and white, public and private. The Parry-Giles demonstrate, for example, that messages often portrayed Clinton as sensitive to women's issues, yet relegated women to the traditional role of "supporter," largely ignored charges of sexual harassment against him, and dismissed his penchant for womanizing as a result of his idolatry of JFK or even Elvis.

Drawing upon a wealth of interdisciplinary scholarship, the authors show how texts about Clinton interwove these dualistic themes. Constructing Clinton accounts for both the verbal and visual dimensions of rhetoric, often with attention to fine visual details. We learn, for instance, that 65 visual images flashed across the screen in the first 17 seconds of the BIOrhythm...