George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo: semiotic explorations of Abraham Lincoln in American cultural memory

Abstract

This paper offers a semiotic analysis of Abraham Lincoln’s role in American cultural memory by addressing the interaction in George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo (2017) between Lincoln’s two roles as a larger than life persona and a relatable ‘common’ man. By using the literary tropes of synecdoche and metonym, and Ernst Kantorowicz’s notion of the King’s two bodies (‘body natural’ and ‘body politic’), this paper examines Lincoln’s roles in the novel and argues that his portrayal as a synecdochic representation of the nation (his body natural) is crucial to the formation of his metonymic representation (his body politic). Discussing examples that range from the connection between the White House and the nation during the Civil War, to Lincoln’s remarkable appearance and his role in the abolition of slavery, we reach the conclusion that Lincoln’s popularity in American cultural memory is owing to the interweaving of these two semiotic relations.