Books by Elisabeth R. Anker

Elisabeth R. Anker reckons with the complex legacy of freedom offered by liberal American democracy, identifying modes of "ugly freedom" that can lead to domination or provide a source of emancipatory potential.

Analyzing the work of melodrama and affect in contemporary politics, Elisabeth R. Anker boldly reframes political theories of sovereignty, freedom, and power. Through readings of melodramatic discourses in the War on Terror, neoliberal politics, anticommunist rhetoric, Hollywood film, and post-Marxist critical theory, she argues that melodrama animates desires for unconstrained power.