Drama of Celebrity

A bold new account of how celebrity works. The Drama of Celebrity reveals how journalists, the public, and celebrities themselves all compete to shape the stories we tell about celebrities and fans, resulting in a high-stakes drama as endless as it is unpredictable.

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). Twitter @MarcusSharon

Summary

A bold new account of how celebrity works

Why do we care so much about celebrities? Who decides who gets to be a star? Do celebrities deserve the outsized attention they receive? Sharon Marcus challenges everything you thought you knew about our obsession with fame. Drawing on scrapbooks, diaries, and vintage fan mail, she 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, as famous in her day as the Beatles in theirs. The Drama of Celebrity reveals how journalists, the public, and celebrities themselves all compete to shape the stories we tell about celebrities and fans, resulting in a high-stakes drama as endless as it is unpredictable.

Product details

• Authors: Sharon Marcus, Marcus Sharon
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.08.2020
• EAN: 9780691210186
• ISBN: 978-0-691-21018-6
• No. of pages: 328
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > General, dictionaries; 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