Celebrity and Power: Fame in Contemporary CultureThe celebrity is an ambiguous figure in contemporary culture. Simultaneously celebrated and denigrated, stars represent not only the embodiment of success, but also the ultimate construction of false value. They are a peculiar form of public subjectivity that negotiates the tension between a democratic culture of access and a consumer capitalist culture of excess. Celebrity and Power examines this dynamic, questioning the cultural forces behind our need to become endlessly embroiled with the construction and collapse of celebrities.Through detailed analysis of figures from Tom Cruise to Oprah Winfrey to the commercial pop music sensation New Kids on the Block, author and cultural critic P. David Marshall investigates the general public’s desire to associate with celebrity. He examines various kinds of stars, questioning the needs each type fulfills in our lives and relating these needs to particular entertainment media. Marshall asks why enigmatic, distant stars populate the silver screen while television constructs approachable “everyman” figures and popular music features audience-identified celebrity personalities. He looks at the significance of stars who amass cultlike followings as well as those who appear to prompt outright rejection.Celebrity and Power identifies the forces that have enveloped the development of democratic culture and their partial resolution through a redefined public sphere populated by celebrities. Marshall argues that the new concern with the masses that characterizes modern capitalism promotes figures who can be seen as part of the crowd but who are articulated as individuals. As such, they provide a model of self-differentiation that furthers an economy in which product consumption is thought to bestow individualism and personality.Bridging the fields of media studies, film studies, communications, and popular culture, Marshall’s volume is a unique resource for students and researchers in all of these disciplines as well as for the general reader.P. David Marshall is director of the Media and Cultural Studies Centre in the Department of English, University of Queensland in Australia. |
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Page vii
... Authenticity 150 7 The System of Celebrity 185 Part III 8 The Embodiment of Affect in Political Culture 203 Conclusion : Forms of Power / Forms of Public Subjectivity 241 Coda : George , Celebrities , and the Shift in Political ...
... Authenticity 150 7 The System of Celebrity 185 Part III 8 The Embodiment of Affect in Political Culture 203 Conclusion : Forms of Power / Forms of Public Subjectivity 241 Coda : George , Celebrities , and the Shift in Political ...
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actor advertising affective power articulated attempts audi aura authenticity campaign candidate celebrity sign celebrity's character charisma Color of Money commodity conception connected connotation construction consumer consumer capitalism consumption contemporary culture Cruise Cruise's culture industries discourse distinction domain embody emerged entertainment established fans film celebrity film industry film star filmic formation hermeneutic Hollywood Ibid identifies identity ideological individual integrated irrational Kids leadership legitimate magazines mass society Maurice Starr meaning ment Method acting modern movie narrative Oprah Winfrey Oprah Winfrey Show organization performer play political leader popular culture popular music celebrity position production public personalities public sphere public subjectivity rational Reception Theory represent representation rock music role screen significance situation comedy soap opera social psychology song specific star's stardom structure style symbolic system of celebrity teen idol television celebrity tion Tom Cruise transformation types vaudeville Weber youth