{"product_id":"the-covert-sphere-secrecy-fiction-and-the-national-security-state-paperback-softback-9780801478536","title":"The Covert Sphere; Secrecy, Fiction, and the National Security State (Paperback \/ softback) 9780801478536","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eThe Covert Sphere\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eSecrecy, Fiction, and the National Security State\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eTimothy Melley (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780801478536\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 15 November 2012\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e304 pages, 13 halftones - 13 Halftones, black and white\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.454 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"His study impressively documents how state secrecy became a privileged topos for reflecting on power and knowledge in late twentieth century American literature and cutlure.\" —Alexander Dunst,Journal of American Studies\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn his exploration of the national security state and the fiction it inspires, Melley engages in a spirited and cerebral examination of certain cultural and political tropes of the Cold Warand beyond, illustrating how often they have been rearticulated in a twenty-first-centurycontext as the War on Terror gathered pace in the wake of 9\/11.\u003c\/p\u003e - Sam Goodman (Literature \u0026amp; History)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn December 2010 the U.S. Embassy in Kabul acknowledged that it was providing major funding for thirteen episodes of Eagle Four—a new Afghani television melodrama based loosely on the blockbuster U.S. series 24\u003c\/b\u003e. According to an embassy spokesperson, Eagle Four was part of a strategy aimed at transforming public suspicion of security forces into something like awed respect. Why would a wartime government spend valuable resources on a melodrama of covert operations? The answer, according to Timothy Melley, is not simply that fiction has real political effects but that, since the Cold War, fiction has become integral to the growth of national security as a concept and a transformation of democracy. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn The Covert Sphere, Melley links this cultural shift to the birth of the national security state in 1947. As the United States developed a vast infrastructure of clandestine organizations, it shielded policy from the public sphere and gave rise to a new cultural imaginary, \"the covert sphere.\" One of the surprising consequences of state secrecy is that citizens must rely substantially on fiction to \"know,\" or imagine, their nation's foreign policy. The potent combination of institutional secrecy and public fascination with the secret work of the state was instrumental in fostering the culture of suspicion and uncertainty that has plagued American society ever since—and, Melley argues, that would eventually find its fullest expression in postmodernism. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Covert Sphere traces these consequences from the Korean War through the War on Terror, examining how a regime of psychological operations and covert action has made the conflation of reality and fiction a central feature of both U.S. foreign policy and American culture. Melley interweaves Cold War history with political theory and original readings of films, television dramas, and popular entertainments—from The Manchurian Candidate through 24—as well as influential writing by Margaret Atwood, Robert Coover, Don DeLillo, Joan Didion, E. L. Doctorow, Michael Herr, Denis Johnson, Norman Mailer, Tim O'Brien, and many others.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePreface\u003cb\u003eIntroduction: The Postmodern Public Sphere\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eCold War Redux\u003cbr\u003e We Now Know\u003cbr\u003e Public Secrets\u003cbr\u003e Mere Entertainment\u003cbr\u003e Strategic Irrationalism\u003cbr\u003e Representations of the Covert State\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e1. Brainwashed!\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Faisalabad Candidate\u003cbr\u003e Brain Warfare\u003cbr\u003e Little Shop of Horrors\u003cbr\u003e Softening Up Our Boys\u003cbr\u003e Renditions\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e2. Spectacles of Secrecy\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eTrial by Simulation\u003cbr\u003e Political Theater\u003cbr\u003e Recovered (National) Memory\u003cbr\u003e The State's Two Faces\u003cbr\u003e Fakery in Allegiance to the Truth\u003cbr\u003e The Fabulist Spy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e3. False Documents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eTrue Lies\u003cbr\u003e Enemies of the State\u003cbr\u003e Psy Ops\u003cbr\u003e The Epistemology of Vietnam\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e4. The Work of Art in the Age of Plausible Deniability\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eNarrative Dysfunction\u003cbr\u003e Calculated Ellipsis\u003cbr\u003e The Feminization of the Public Sphere\u003cbr\u003e The Journalist as Patsy\u003cbr\u003e Metafiction in Wartime\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e5. Postmodern Amnesia\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eAssassins of Memory\u003cbr\u003e The Dialectics of Spectacle and Secrecy\u003cbr\u003e Secret History\u003cbr\u003e The Magic Show\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e6. The Geopolitical Melodrama\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eGround Zero\u003cbr\u003e Enemies, Foreign and Domestic\u003cbr\u003e Whatever It Takes\u003cbr\u003e Demonology\u003cbr\u003e Melodrama as Policy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003e Works Cited\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Cornell University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52693394555160,"sku":"9780801478536","price":23.39,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-covert-sphere-secrecy-fiction-and-the-national-security-state-paperback-softback-9780801478536","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}