Confessional Crises and Cultural Politics in Twentieth-Century America by Dave Tell (review)

Drawing on a range of texts from Augustine’s Confessions to Michel Foucault’s provocative study of modern confession in the first volume of The History of Sexuality, scholars throughout the humanities have amassed an extensive body of secondary literature on the practice of public confession. Before the publication of Confessional Crises, Dave Tell had already established himself as an expert within rhetorical studies on the matter, reading several texts on confession in provocative and interesting ways to elaborate on theoretical discussions circulating across academic disciplines. Those already familiar with Tell’s previous work on the subject of confession will be pleased to find that the author has managed to break significant ground in his recent book by arguing that American public culture has been, and continues to be, fascinated with the practice of confession and what texts can be counted as such.

Tell analyzes six issues in American public culture that have been deeply informed by the genre of confession: sexuality, class, race, violence, religion, and democracy. Offering a series of case studies ranging from the supposed confession of those who killed Emmett Till to President Clinton’s scandal with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, Tell details how the “the act of determining precisely which texts count as confessions—has been one of the most powerful, and most over-looked, forms of intervening into American cultural politics” (3). The object of analysis, then, shifts from the confessional discourse itself to those texts and controversies aiming to credit or discredit a given discourse as a confession. As a result, Tell’s book is an engaging “political economy of confession” that “stress[es] the fact that, historically speaking, the boundaries of confession have been subject to revision by activists interested primarily in cultural politics” (4).

In the introduction of Confessional Crises, Tell makes his methodological commitments especially clear for the reader. Following the work of Steven Mailloux, Tell successfully produces what he calls a “reception history” of confessions in recent American history or “historical interpretations of texts as confessions and . . . the political climate that influenced (and was influenced by) these classifications” (7). In other words, Tell is concerned less with the formal features that comprise a confession than with how confessions (or, more appropriately, discourses labeled as confessions by others) have been received and put to use by the American public. Tell rightfully takes for granted the supposition that any text can be labeled a confession if political motives necessitate that it ought to adhere to that classification. As Tell deftly illustrates throughout the book, there can be great political purchase in naming a text a confession, and each of his case studies focuses on the controversies that arise when advocates argue whether a particular text is a true confession or something altogether different.

Although each of Tell’s case studies serves the purpose of the larger book and eloquently supports its central claim, each chapter individually will appeal to scholars interested in the particular topics. For instance, those with previous investments in the racially motivated murder of Emmett Till will find indispensible Tell’s chapter on William Bradford Huie’s article in Look magazine, detailing an admission by Till’s killers, because it fills in a previous gap in the literature by turning to Huie’s journalistic account of the murder instead of other artifacts previously attended to by scholars. Interestingly, Tell shows how “segregationists and civil rights activists both fought to authenticate the same version of Till’s story” (88). Tell’s treatment of Huie’s “Shocking Story” and the ensuing controversy over whether its contents functioned as a confession is only one example of how Tell demonstrates his competence in analyzing confessional anxieties.

Other chapters, and especially the one focused on televangelist Jimmy Swaggart’s confession to fraternizing with prostitutes, also highlight Tell’s novel method for studying confession. Rather than confining itself to a traditional public address approach whereby the rhetorical features...