Reader Participation in Spanish Electoral Coverage: The Case of a Small Newspaper

Between 1993 and 1995, the National Air and Space Museum was involved in a heated generic controversy. Curators at the museum planned a display called "The Last Act" from an interpretative genre to interrogate the traditional histories surrounding the Enola Gay bombing of Hiroshima. Characterized as "revisionists," these curators became involved in a political clash with those veterans and members of Congress who saw the Smithsonian as part of a commemorative genre that should celebrate the end of World War II. The present analysis examines the political implications that attended this clash of genres and the resulting rhetorical constraints in the cultural wars over the Enola Gay display.