Governing Codes: Gender, Metaphor, and Political Identity (Lexington Studies in Political Communication) - Hardcover

Anderson, Karrin Vasby; Sheeler, Kristina Horn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0739110225 ISBN 13: 9780739110225

Publisher: Lexington Books, 2005

Synopsis

Governing Codes examines the political identity of four contemporary U.S. political figures-Democrats Ann Richards and Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republicans Christine Todd Whitman and Elizabeth Dole-illustrating how metaphor plays a central role in the construction of public identity in U.S. politics. Anderson and Sheeler analyze how familiar narratives and stereotypes about women and power often govern media portrayals of public women, containing and constraining them, but also how these women mine the metaphorical landscape for rhetorical strategies they can use to accomplish their pragmatic goals.

About this title

Review:

Governing Codes: Gender, Metaphor, and Political Identity makes a significant scholarly contribution. The depth and breadth of the authors' research is impressive. The prose is engaging and the extensive use of examples insightful. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in political communication, gender studies, media, and language use.--Molly Mayhead, West Oregon University

Focusing on the power of metaphor in the rhetorical construction of political reality, Anderson and Sheeler put the spotlight on gender and politics like no one before.--Martin J. Medhurst, Baylor University

Karrin Vasby Anderson and Kristina Horn Sheeler have combined forces to produce a smart, crisply written treatment of metaphor's strategic role in contemporary U.S. politics. They focus on the constitutive uses of language by four strong women, each working to re-articulate and thus turn to her political advantage otherwise negative stereotypes of women in positions of leadership. Ann Richards, Christine Todd Whitman, Elizabeth Dole, and Hillary Rodham Clinton provide rich cases for the authors to probe and critique the nexus of gender, metaphor, and political identity. This is a study not only of cultural constraints but also of rhetorical ingenuity and the enhancement of women's political agency. It confronts head on the troublesome metaphor of sexual containment that has trapped political women in a debilitating double bind. This is a book that will be of immediate interest to scholars and students alike for its accessible insights into rhetorical constraint, ingenuity, and maneuver.--Robert L. Ivie, Indiana University, Bloomington

About the Author:

Karrin Vasby Anderson is assistant professor of speech communication at Colorado State University. Kristina Horn Sheeler is assistant professor of communication studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

About this edition

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0739110225
• ISBN 13: 9780739110225
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256