Performing the Nation: Person in the O. J. Simpson Case

The role of the discursive individual in the process of "performing the nation" (D'Cruz, S., 1994), ie, the continuous (re)creation of the symbolic site of a more or less unified political space, is analyzed on the basis of media discourse produced in the 1994/95 O. J. Simpson criminal trial. The nationalist requirement of a collective identity is discussed; following L. Berlant (1991) & R. Williams (1977), it is argued that this utopian collective identity can be threatened by personal counter-memories, which may either be oppositional enough to remain in the national framework & can thus be absorbed into the hegemonic collective consciousness through a process of ideological recuperation, or which may reflect truly threatening alternative challenges. In the Simpson case, it is demonstrated how media discourse criminalized Simpson by portraying him as a criminal black man belonging to an African American "they," whereas he was previously seen as a (deracialized) national hero belonging to (the white) "us," thus allowing black counter-memories related to racism into national consciousness. In later stages of the trial, & especially after Simpson's acquittal, these possibly alternative counter-memories were oppositionalized & thus recuperated into a nationalism focusing on a utopian racial unity. 23 References. S. Paul