Drama of Celebrity

Why do so many people care so much about celebrities? Who decides who gets to be a star? What are the privileges and pleasures of fandom? Do celebrities ever deserve the outsized attention they receive? In this fascinating and deeply researched book, Sharon Marcus challenges everything you thought you knew about our obsession with fame. Icons are not merely famous for being famous; the media alone cannot make or break stars; fans are not simply passive dupes. Instead, journalists, the public, and celebrities themselves all compete, passionately and expertly, to shape the stories we tell about celebrities and fans. The result: a high-stakes drama as endless as it is unpredictable. Drawing on scrapbooks, personal diaries, and vintage fan mail, Marcus traces celebrity culture back to its nineteenth-century roots, when people the world over found themselves captivated by celebrity chefs, bad-boy poets, and actors such as the "divine" Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923), as famous in her day as the Beatles in theirs. Known in her youth for sleeping in a coffin, hailed in maturity as a woman of genius, Bernhardt became a global superstar thanks to savvy engagement with her era's most innovative media and technologies: the popular press, commercial photography, and speedy new forms of travel.

About the author

Sharon Marcus is the Orlando Harriman Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. She is a founding editor of Public Books and the author of the award-winning Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England (Princeton) and Apartment Stories: City and Home in Nineteenth-Century Paris and London. Twitter @MarcusSharon

Summary

A bold new account of how celebrity worksWhy do so many people care so much about celebrities? Who decides who gets to be a star? What are the privileges and pleasures of fandom? Do celebrities ever deserve the outsized attention they receive?In this fascinating and deeply researched book, Sharon Marcus challenges everything you thought you

Product details

• Authors: Sharon Marcus, Marcus Sharon
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.06.2019
• EAN: 9780691177595
• ISBN: 978-0-691-17759-5
• No. of pages: 328
• Dimensions: 165 mm x 245 mm x 30 mm
• Subjects: Education and learning > Teaching preparation > Vocational needs; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Media Studies, Popular Culture, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture, Cultural Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Gender Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Media Studies, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Literature: history & criticism, Social and cultural history, Gender studies, gender groups, Literature: history and criticism, LITERARY CRITICISM / Subjects & Themes / Gender Identity