The Resilience of Camelot: The Kennedy Myth in Danish Newspapers during the Cold War

IF 0.1 4区社会学 0 HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY AMERICAN STUDIES IN SCANDINAVIA Pub Date : 2018-10-30 DOI:10.22439/ASCA.V50I2.5778

R. Søndergaard

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Abstract

John F. Kennedy holds a unique position in American public memory and opinion polls continuously rank Kennedy among the best presidents. The scholarly assessment of Kennedy, however, has changed considerably over time and holds a decisively less celebratory appraisal of Kennedy today. This dissonance between public opinion and scholarly assessment is closely connected to the so-called Kennedy Myth, which presents an idealized mythological image of Kennedy. Existing scholarship has demonstrated that Kennedy was immensely popular among Danes up until his assassination in 1963. However, little is known about how Danish perceptions of Kennedy developed over time. This article traces the portrayal of Kennedy in four major Danish newspapers from 1963 to the end of the Cold War. The article finds a clear manifestation of the Kennedy Myth throughout the period. Moreover, the article demonstrates that exposure to scholarly criticism and increased awareness of the existence of the Kennedy Myth does little to damage positive appraisals of Kennedy. The article thus testifies to the resilience of the Kennedy Myth across both space and time.

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卡梅洛特的恢复力:冷战期间丹麦报纸上的肯尼迪神话

约翰·肯尼迪在美国公众记忆中占有独特的地位，民意调查不断将肯尼迪列为最佳总统之一。然而，随着时间的推移，学术界对肯尼迪的评价发生了很大变化，对今天的肯尼迪的评价显然不那么值得庆祝。公众舆论和学术评价之间的这种不和谐与所谓的肯尼迪神话密切相关，后者呈现了肯尼迪理想化的神话形象。现有的学术研究表明，肯尼迪在丹麦人中非常受欢迎，直到1963年遇刺。然而，丹麦人对肯尼迪的看法是如何随着时间的推移而发展的，目前还知之甚少。这篇文章追溯了从1963年到冷战结束，丹麦四大报纸对肯尼迪的描述。这篇文章发现了肯尼迪神话在整个时期的清晰表现。此外，这篇文章表明，接触学术批评和提高对肯尼迪神话存在的认识并不会损害对肯尼迪的积极评价。因此，这篇文章证明了肯尼迪神话在空间和时间上的韧性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

AMERICAN STUDIES IN SCANDINAVIA HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-

CiteScore

0.20

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： American Studies in Scandinavia, the journal of the Nordic Association for American Studies, is published twice each year, and carries scholarly articles and reviews on a wide range of American Studies topics and disciplines, including history, literature, politics, geography, media, language, diplomacy, race, ethnicity, economics, law, culture and society. American Studies in Scandinavia is sponsored by the National Councils for Research in Science and the Humanities in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, the journal is published by Odense University Press with the financial support of the Nordic Publications Committee for Humanist Periodicals.