Hacettepe University Graduate School of Social Sciences Department of American Culture and Literature SELF AND POWER IN THE PRESIDENTIAL LIFE WRITING OF GEORGE H. W. BUSH, BILL CLINTON, AND GEORGE W. BUSH Meryem Elif DOĞDU Master’s Thesis Ankara, 2019 SELF AND POWER IN THE PRESIDENTIAL LIFE WRITING OF GEORGE H. W. BUSH, BILL CLINTON, AND GEORGE W. BUSH Meryem Elif DOĞDU Hacettepe University Graduate School of Social Sciences Department of American Culture and Literature Master’s Thesis Ankara, 2019 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this study would not have been possible if not for the guidance and support of others. Firstly I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Assist. Prof. Dr. Özge Özbek Akıman for her advice and academic insight during such a testing period. I would also like to express my gratitude to my thesis committee members, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bilge Mutluay Çetintaş, Assist. Prof. Dr. Cem Kılıçarslan, Assist. Prof. Dr. Ceylan Özcan, and Assist. Prof. Dr. Nisa Harika Güzel Köşker, whose feedback and encouraging comments were invaluable in these past couple of months. I am thankful to have studied in the American Culture and Literature Department of Hacettepe, and will always be appreciative of those who have contributed to its advancement. I would also like to thank my grandmother for always being there, especially when I needed her the most during this past year. And finally, I will forever be grateful to Süleyman Üçel for the unconditional support and motivation he has given me, and whom without nothing would be the same. v ABSTRACT DOĞDU, Meryem Elif. Self and Power in the Presidential Life Writing of George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, Master’s Thesis, Ankara, 2019. This thesis analyzes of three US Presidents’ understandings of self and power as reflected in their life writing. The scope of this thesis is limited to the period between the years 1989-2009, during which George H. W. Bush (1989-1993), Bill Clinton (1993-2001), and George W. Bush (2001-2009) served respectively. Now defined as the post-Cold War era, during these presidents’ administrations, “hostility against communism” gave way to the “War on Terror.” Acknowledging that current American politics and foreign policies were shaped during these two decades, this thesis examines the notion of power in relation to the subject position of the president. In their autobiographical works, All the Best: My Life in Letters and Other Writings (2013), My Life (2004), and Decision Points (2010) George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush attempt to reassert their power, which ended with their presidency and was diminished by media images and criticisms. In doing so, they revere the ideology of values such as individualism, democracy, freedom, and religious morality, which are identified with national and international American policies. Chapter I offers a close reading of these three works as presidential life writing and analyzes the self in relation to a nationalist American identity. Chapter II further studies the core nature of presidents’ power in relation to America as a superpower. The power invested in presidents is often used in a way that exposes efforts of maintaining a public image (or self) and agreeing with preconceived practices; public opinion and American values are instrumental in making decisions regarding interactions with Middle Eastern countries, and presidential actions often show compliance with former presidential actions. Thus, such power requires justification. These presidents’ exercise of power in their authorship reflects an attempt to influence historical perceptions, and contend and rationalize their former power. Keywords: Life Writing, Autobiography, American Presidents, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush vi ÖZET DOĞDU, Meryem Elif. Amerikan Başkanları George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton ve George W. Bush’un Özyaşam Öykülerindeki Güç ve Benlik, Yüksek Lisans Tezi, Ankara, 2019. Bu tez, üç ABD Başkanı’nın özyaşam öykülerinde yansıtılan öz benlik ve güç anlayışlarının bir analizidir. Bu tezin kapsamı, sırasıyla George H. W. Bush (1989- 1993), Bill Clinton (1993-2001) ve George W. Bush’un (2001-2009) Amerikan başkanlığını yaptıkları 1989-2009 yılları arasındaki süre ile sınırlıdır. Soğuk Savaş sonrası dönem olarak tanımlanan bu başkanların yönetimleri sırasındaki dönemde, “komünizme karşı düşmanlık” yerini “teröre karşı savaş” kavramına bıraktı. Günümüz Amerikan iç ve dış politikalarının bu yirmi yıl boyunca şekillendiğini göz önünde bulundurarak, bu tez güç kavramını Amerikan başkanı öznesine ilişkin olarak inceler. All the Best: My Life in Letters and Other Writings (2013), My Life (2004), ve Decision Points (2010) adlı otobiyografik çalışmalarında, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton ve George W. Bush’un başkanlıklarıyla sona eren ve medya imgeleri ve eleştirileriyle azalan güçlerini yeniden kazanmaya çalıştıkları savunulmaktadır. Bunu yaparken de ulusal ve uluslararası boyutta Amerikan politikalarıyla özdeşleşen bireycilik, demokrasi, özgürlük, ve dine dayalı ahlak gibi değerlerin ideolojisini kutsamaktadırlar. Birinci bölümde bu üç eser başkanların özyaşam öyküsü olarak incelenmektedir ve benlik milliyetçi bir Amerikan kimliği ile ilişkili olarak analiz edilmektedir. İkinci bölümde ise başkanların gücünün temel niteliği Amerika’nın bir süper güç olması ile ilişkili olarak analiz edilmektedir. Başkanlara verilen güç, genellikle toplumdaki imajını (veya benliğini) koruma ve önceki uygulamalara ters düşmeme çabalarını gösterecek şekilde kullanılır; kamuoyu ve Amerikan değerleri Orta Doğu ülkeleriyle ilişkiler konusundaki kararlarda etkilidir ve başkanlık faaliyetleri genellikle eski başkanlık eylemleriyle uyum gösterir. Dolayısıyla, böyle bir güç gerekçelendirme gerektirir. Başkanların yazar olarak otonom güçlerini kullanmaları, tarihsel algıları etkileme ve eski güçlerini savunma ve rasyonelleştirme girişimlerini yansıtmaktadır. vii Anahtar Sözcükler: Özyaşam Öyküsü, Otobiyografi, ABD Başkanları, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush viii TABLE OF CONTENTS KABUL VE ONAY .......................................................................................................... i YAYIMLAMA VE FİKRİ MÜLKİYET HAKLARI BEYANI .................................. ii ETİK BEYAN ................................................................................................................ iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... iv ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... v ÖZET .............................................................................................................................. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................ viii INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER I: Self in Presidential Life Writing .......................................................... 31 1.1. The Administrations and Life Writing of George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush .............................................................................................................. 32 1.2. Ideology and the Construction of a National Presidential Self. .......................... 62 CHAPTER II: Power in Presidential Life Writing .................................................... 74 2.1. Presidential Power and its Relation to the U.S. as a Global Power ..................... 75 2.2. Reestablishing Power in Presidential Narrative ................................................... 94 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................ 113 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................... 120 APPENDIX 1. Ethics Board Waiver Form ............................................................... 130 APPENDIX 2. Originality Report ............................................................................. 132 1 INTRODUCTION Since its philosophical conception in the minds of the Founding Fathers, the political (and cultural) tradition of the United States has been established on the assumption of exceptionalism, which signifies a unique place for the United States in the history of Western civilization. The presidents of the United States have been the symbolic personifications of this cultural and political tradition, which is characterized by the ideals of individualism, freedom, democracy and religious morality. A puritanical tradition, saturated with the ideals of American exceptionalism, has been perpetuated by political leaders since Benjamin Franklin and the other Founding Fathers, up to modern day American presidents, regardless of their affiliations with different political parties. Autobiography, or life writing, by American presidents is the distinctive cultural product of the United States that reflects and aims to sustain this unique American ideology that bears the power of the presidency and the nation. Studying such works of presidential life writing reveals the methods through which their authors aim to achieve this objective. This thesis offers a life writing critique and Foucauldian analysis of the presidential life writing of George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush in order to observe how notions of self and power