ABSTRACT
This iteration of Whitney's biography echoes the victim-obsessed view of national identity that Berlant describes in The Queen of America Goes to Washington except here the addict becomes the victimizer, and the nation itself becomes the unwitting victim. It is important first to recall that Whitney's vocal talent was cast as a national treasurea point that was reiterated for a wide audience in the very credible voice of Oprah Winfrey during her interview with Whitney. To commodify the addict is to identify her private struggles and tragedies as fodder for public spectacle. The spectacle itself constitutes and is constituted by a pre-packaged set of cultural narratives that are saleable to the American public precisely because they are recognizable, as well as psychologically and ideologically palatable. In the final narrative segment of a cautionary tale, the protagonist comes to a grisly and unpleasant fate as a result of choosing to participate in the forbidden act about which s/he has been forewarned.
