Abstract
This chapter investigates the fantasies of intimacy underlying the identity and evaluation of modern politicians in the context of a mediated public sphere. It does so from within a psychosocial framework that takes seriously how the technical devices through which political personae are mediated and brought to the attention of an audience form the preconditions for particular forms of emotional ‘affect’. This is supported by reference to the historical emergence of the idea of ‘personality’ and the display of ‘self’ in public life. What then follows is an exploration of the personae of political ‘woman’, which delineates how conceptions of the political female in public life is often a puzzle or even paradoxical.
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© 2009 Jessica Evans
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Evans, J. (2009). ‘As if’ Intimacy? Mediated Persona, Politics and Gender. In: Sclater, S.D., Jones, D.W., Price, H., Yates, C. (eds) Emotion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230245136_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230245136_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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