The Many Lives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Cultural Post-mortem

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The book analyzes narratives in circulation about the life of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, wife of slain President John F. Kennedy. Famously private and silent on her life with JFK and thereafter as Jackie Onassis and then her afterlife as Jackie O, wife of Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, the question is: what stories have been told about her There have been legions of biographies and memoirs, though not hers documentaries and photo books and more, stepping in to speak on her behalf. Kaite argues these many Jackies are a creation of ours and not a reflection of who she may really have been. The Many Lives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis reveals the cultural ventriloquism at work in the construction of this iconic figure. It uses the obituaries of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as its template and centers on the key phrases and words found there. Each chapter broadens the scope of those key words to inquire how they have been informed and embellished in various media. There is Jackie as a celebrity in need of defilement; as the face of Cold War containment; woven into mythological Camelot; The House of Yes and Jackie; Jacqueline Kennedy as good mother; and, Jackie O. This cultural studies treatment of what silence produces reveals what a culture needs in its celebrities.

Author Bio

Berkeley Kaite is Associate Professor in the Department of English at McGill University, Canada, where she has taught film, media and literary studies since 1990. She is author of the book Pornography and Difference (1995).