NATION, NOSTALGIA AND MASCULINITY: CLINTON/SPIELBERG/HANKS by Molly Diane Brown B.A. English, University of Oregon, 1995 M.A. English, Portland State University, 1998 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2009 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH ARTS AND SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND FILM STUDIES This dissertation was presented by Molly Diane Brown It was defended on May 14, 2009 and approved by Marcia Landy, PhD, Distinguished Professor, Film Studies Adam Lowenstein, PhD, Associate Professor, Film Studies Brent Malin, PhD, Assistant Professor, Communication Dissertation Advisor: Lucy Fischer, PhD, Distinguished Professor, Film Studies ii Copyright © by Molly Diane Brown 2009 iii NATION, NOSTALGIA AND MASCULINITY: CLINTON/SPIELBERG/HANKS Molly Diane Brown, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2009 This dissertation focuses on masculinity in discourses of nostalgia and nation in popular films and texts of the late 20th century’s millennial period—the “Bill Clinton years,” from 1992-2001. As the 1990s progressed, masculinity crises and millennial anxieties intersected with an increasing fixation on nostalgic popular histories of World War II. The representative masculine figures proffered in Steven Spielberg films and Tom Hanks roles had critical relationships to cultural crises surrounding race, reproduction and sexuality. Nostalgic narratives emerged as way to fortify the American nation-state and resolve its social problems. The WWII cultural trend, through the specter of tributes to a dying generation, used nostalgic texts and images to create imaginary American landscapes that centered as much on contemporary masculinity and the political and social perspective of the Boomer generation as it did on the prior one. The conceit of Clinton’s masculinity is used as the figural link between the male bodies represented in such popular 1990s films as Amistad, Saving Private Ryan and The Green Mile. Additional chapters focus on Tom Hanks’ star persona, the notion of boyhood, and the nexus between pop cultural imagery and representations of nostalgia. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................8. 1.1 INTRODUCTION TO PRELUDES ................................................................ 20 2.0 CULTURE WAR AND NINETIES NOSTALGIA ................................................. 23 2.1 PRELUDE I: NATIONALIZING TH E “G REATEST” PICTURE A ND GENERATION ................................................................................................................... 23 2.1.1 Culture War an d t he Generation “G ap:” F ashioning Uniformity in the Body Politic ................................................................................................................. 31 2.1.1.1 Nostalgic Acts and the Public Sphere ................................................ 33 2.1.1.2 The 1990s Culture Wars ..................................................................... 50 2.1.1.3 Who Wore Khakis? .............................................................................. 56 3.0 BILL CLINTON AND POLITICAL NOSTALGIA .............................................. 65 3.1 PRELUDE II: BOY’S NATION AND LOST FATHERS ............................. 65 3.1.1 Nostalgic Discourse: The Presidential Body and National Affect ............. 76 3.1.1.1 Presidential Sexuality ......................................................................... 76 3.1.1.2 Clinton’s Audience .............................................................................. 94 3.1.1.3 America’s Body Politic ....................................................................... 99 3.1.1.4 Clinton’s Empathy ............................................................................ 101 4.0 STEVEN SPIELBERG AND THE NOSTALGIC “BOY” .................................. 122 v 4.1 PRELUDE III: NATION, FAMILY AND THE BOY SCOUT ................... 122 4.1.1 The Blockbuster and Nostalgic Meaning:The Spielberg text and “Adult” Visions of Boyhood ................................................................................................... 136 4.1.1.1 Part 1: The Auteur-star .................................................................... 137 4.1.1.2 Part II: Nostalgic National Acts and the Blockbuster ................... 157 4.1.1.3 Part III: The “man-boy” in Amistad ................................................. 171 5.0 TOM HANKS AND NOSTALGIA FOR EVERYMAN ...................................... 185 5.1 PRELUDE IV: “EVERYMAN” IN UNIFORM ............................................ 185 5.1.1 You’ve Got White Male: Tom Hanks’ Body ............................................. 206 5.1.1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................... 206 5.1.1.2 Big Boy ............................................................................................... 215 5.1.1.3 Sleepless (and sexless) in Seattle and Philadelphia ........................ 225 5.1.1.4 Apollo 13: Body Rockets ................................................................... 239 5.1.1.5 You’ve Got White Male .................................................................... 246 6.0 WWII NOSTALGIA (CLINTON/SPIELBERG/HANKS) .................................. 260 6.1 PRELUDE V: WORLD WA R II “C OMMEMORATION” AND F ETAL “COMBAT” ...................................................................................................................... 260 6.1.1 “The Spare Parts of Dead G.I.s:” Masculine Metastasis and the use of the Maternal in Saving Private Ryan ............................................................................. 274 6.1.1.1 I. Introduction ................................................................................... 274 6.1.1.2 II. Fetality .......................................................................................... 282 6.1.1.3 III. Triangles ...................................................................................... 290 6.1.1.4 IV. Metastasis .................................................................................... 297 vi 6.1.1.5 Afterword ........................................................................................... 307 7.0 NOSTALGIA AND THE SUFFERING MALE BODY: CONCLUSIONS ....... 309 7.1 PRELUDE VI: EXECUTION AND THE BLACK MALE BODY ............ 309 7.1.1 Impeachment: T he Gr een M ile, Wh ite M asculinity, and S entimental Shame ………………………………………………………………………………323 7.1.1.1 Clinton and the (Southern) Nation .................................................. 325 7.1.1.2 Spielbergian themes and Nostalgia .................................................. 335 7.1.1.3 Hanks’ Suffering Body and Masculinity ......................................... 338 7.1.1.4 Afterword: Shame and connections to WWII ................................ 346 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 350 vii 1.0 INTRODUCTION This dissertation focuses on m asculinity in discourses of nostalgia and nation in popular films and texts of the late 20th century’s millennial period—the “Bill Clinton years,” from 1992-2001. The Clinton ye ars are popularly characterized (most re cently by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign) as a pe aceful e ra that r epaired R epublican damage and launched a f lourishing domestic and global economy. Clinton’s 1992 w in was supposed to re-energize the Democrats and a tone f or t he l iberalism t hat many pa rty bi gwigs he ld r esponsible f or t heir s treak of presidential losses since 1968—aside from Carter’s ineffective stint. When Clinton accepted the nomination in 1992 he claimed to offer a choice that was not “conservative or liberal . not even R epublican or D emocrat. I t i s ne w” ( Wadden 12) . As a N ew D emocrat, Clinton w as expected t o c oncentrate on t he p ains a nd pr oblems of t he “ forgotten” m iddle c lass whose interests ha d been eclipsed for de cades by their pa rty’s “bleeding heart” f ocus on social inequality, minority gr oups, a nd h ot but ton i ssues l ike ga y r ights a nd a bortion. T he f ailure of democratic liberalism (to win presidencies) secured Middle America and its mainstream, rather than minority citizens as the new focal point. This democratic shift away from a l iberal agenda was one of the ways that ordinary white males, and their seemingly neglected interests, retained center position on t he political and cultural stage in the 1990s. The loss of several Democratic seats in the 1994 election was attributed in part to “angry white males” whose needs had been ignored due to Clinton’s purported focus on minorities. Though the forgotten middle class contained a populace of diverse citizens, white males emerged i n c ultural representations as one of i ts s ignificant c ontingents. Without h istories of 1 discrimination or adve rsity, white middle cl ass m ales l acked the “v ictim” st atus t hat s ecured political mobilization in the 1990s “culture wars.” Instead the era opened white males to overt political a nd c ultural a cknowledgement of a pr ivilege t hat pr eviously had gone unquestioned. Carol J. Clover argued in 1993: “the white male is the great unmarked or default category of western c ulture, t he one t hat ne ver needed t o d efine i tself, t he s tandard a gainst w hich ot her categories have calculated their difference” (145). Clover