Distribution Agreement In presenting this dissertation as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree from Emory University, I hereby grant to Emory University and its agents the non- exclusive license to archive, make accessible, and display my dissertation in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known, including display on the world wide web. I understand that I may select some access restrictions as part of the online submission of this dissertation. I retain all ownership rights to the copyright of the dissertation. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this dissertation. Signature: ____________________________ ______________ Michelle S. Hite Date Sisters, Rivals, and Citizens: Venus and Serena Williams as a Case Study of American Identity By Michelle S. Hite Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts ___________________________________________________________ Rudolph P. Byrd, Ph.D. Advisor ___________________________________________________________ Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Ph.D. Committee Member ___________________________________________________________ Kimberly Wallace-Sanders, Ph.D. Committee Member Accepted: ___________________________________________________________ Lisa A. Tedesco, Ph.D. Dean of the Graduate School ____________________ Date Sisters, Rivals, and Citizens: Venus and Serena Williams as a Case Study of American Identity By Michelle S. Hite M.Sc., University of Kentucky Rudolph P. Byrd, Ph.D. An abstract of A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Emory University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts 2009 Abstract Sisters, Rivals, and Citizens: Venus and Serena Williams as a Case Study of American Identity By Michelle S. Hite The four chapters of this dissertation focus on tennis players Venus and Serena Williams as figures for an examination into American identity in this moment of late capitalism. An essential aspect of the Williams sisters’ figuration in my work is the way they are symbolically understood to be anarchic women. As such, they function for the national community similar to the way that pariah women function in the local communities of Toni Morrison’s fiction. This interdisciplinary work draws on diverse yet often mutually informing theoretical discourses such as literary theory, sports history, (black) feminist studies, disability studies, and cultural studies to engage the following core questions: 1.) What role does the representation of black women as anarchic figures play in clarifying the boundaries and bounty of citizenship in this late capitalist moment? 2.) In what ways are young black women athletes transforming political discourses of migration, travel, style, and the body? What are the implications of these changes? 3.) How do the mechanics of race and gender operate so as to simultaneously enable censure and celebrity? What utility can this insight have on the conceptualization of market versus civic relations? 4.) How can this specific case of the Williams sisters render less abstract the role of fraternity (if not sorority) for democracy? Sisters, Rivals, and Citizens: Venus and Serena Williams as a Case Study of American Identity By Michelle S. Hite M.Sc., University of Kentucky Rudolph P. Byrd, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Emory University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts 2009 Acknowledgements I once knew a girl who said that after she read an author’s acknowledgements she would write her name on the page. She said she liked to imagine that the author included her name among those who helped make the work possible. I can’t say why I remember that story but it was important to me to know someone who, like me, always read a work’s acknowledgements. I hope my acknowledgements find a reader like the girl I once knew; in other words, someone inspired enough to include your name in case I run out of room. Space is certainly an issue in this instance as I have met with the kindness and generosity of so many. Perhaps my dissertation advisor, Rudolph P. Byrd is the finest example of this. Dr. Byrd may not know this but he is a model of who I would like to be as a teacher and a scholar. He was always encouraging and patient. I always felt honored to be the recipient of his time and insight. Rosemarie Garland-Thomson is also a very generous scholar. Like Dr. Byrd, Dr. Garland-Thomson was always encouraging. To that end, I would like to thank Kimberly Wallace-Sanders. “Dr. Kim” always offered encouragement and support. Though Fon Gordon was not officially a member of my dissertation committee, she has always played a significant role in my intellectual development. Thank you Dr. Gordon. Emory graduate students, especially those in the ILA, are not only generous and interesting but they are also very, very nice. Margaret “Molly” McGehee, Rhea Combs, Stacy Boyd, Donna Troka, and Tony de Velasco are the most illustrative of what was best about the graduate students at Emory. I was also the beneficiary of the kindness, generosity, and friendship of the faculty in the English Department at Spelman College. Akiba Harper, Opal Moore, Sharan Strange, Stephen Knadler, Christina Sizemore, Anne Warner, Margaret Price, Zandra Jordan, Terry Bozeman, Lynn Jennings, Kelly Randall, Lisa Niles, Tarshia Stanley, Geneva Baxter, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Alma Jean Billingslea-Brown, Piper Hughley-Riggins, and Wandra C. Hunley. I would like to thank my mother, Janeen Hite, for her love and support. I would also like to thank my friends, Tanya Johnson, Raina Turner, Jackie Knox, and Makeeta Rayton for their encouragement. I would never have completed this work without the understanding, love, and patience of my husband, D’Andre D. Jenkins. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the birth of my son, Miles D’Andre Jenkins as the greatest source of encouragement in my push to the finish line. Table of Contents Introduction-1 Chapter 1 Anarchic Women and All-American Girls in the Age of Late Capitalism 17 Chapter 2 Routed in the Body: Venus and Serena Williams on the Women’s Tour 77 Chapter 3 Playing with Style: Complicity and Black Female Self-Presentation in Postmodernity 139 Chapter 4 My Sister’s Keeper: Rethinking Narratives of National Identity and Inevitable Violence 184 Conclusion 233 Bibliography 241 1 Introduction This dissertation seeks to take measure of American identity through the lens of African American subjectivity as represented in the public careers of tennis players Venus and Serena Williams. Using Venus and Serena Williams for this study showcases the changes that historian Thomas Holt ascribes to race and racism in contemporary America. As he explains, “[t]here are new anomalies, new ambiguities, and a new ambivalence in contemporary life that our standard definitions of race and racism simply cannot account for, and which even render them somewhat anachronistic” (Holt 5). Associating the “new anomalies, new ambiguities, and a new ambivalence in contemporary life” that underscore race and racism in the twenty-first century with the Williams sisters and thus with bodies and gendered expectations that differ from black male bodies challenges the sole authority of black masculinity in defining racial experience during this late capitalist moment. Late capitalism indicates the development of capitalism during the twentieth century and it highlights the transformations within the social, economic, and cultural landscape since the conclusion of World War II. Fredric Jameson’s insights regarding postmodernism and late capitalism illuminate significant changes in the organization of imperial and colonial power as well as it emphasizes the emergence of novel forms of business organization. Moreover, Jameson asserts that the features of late capitalism: include the new international division of labor, a vertiginous new dynamic in international banking and the stock exchanges (including the enormous Second and Third World debt), new forms of media interrelationship (very much including transportation systems such as containerization), computers and automation, the flight of production to 2 advanced Third World areas, along with all the more familiar social consequences, including the crisis of traditional labor, the emergence of yuppies, and gentrification on a now-global scale. (xix) Sociologists such as Elijah Anderson and Saskia Sassen examine the transformations that Jameson names through an examination of the city. In the United States, the effects of late capitalism have had a profound effect on the labor and the organization of cities. Others have seen sport as fertile ground for exploring the features of late capitalism. In this examination, Michael Jordan has loomed large. As Walter LaFeber explains, Jordan’s rise as a basketball player occurred just as satellite television was emerging. Jordan’s skills and fortunate good looks made him a projectable commodity that corporations could market on a global scale. A significant shift in racial understanding occurred as blackness was not a liability to Jordan; despite his dark skin, Jordan appeared to be a very likeable, thus marketable, man. Race did not appear to block Jordan’s access to financial success as his image was marketed and consumed globally. Contributing to Jordan’s likability