The Drama of Celebrity

Description

A bold new account of how celebrity works 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

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

"[An] inventive, stimulating book. . . . [Sharon] Marcus is a brilliant theorist and analyst of theater history."---Elaine Showalter, New York Times "[An] insightful and often entertaining take on celebrity. . . . The linchpin of the author's study is French stage actress Sarah Bernhardt, a master of self-promotion. To the shelves of works about Bernhardt, Marcus brings a singular take-richly illustrated throughout by reproduced drawings, paintings, and photographs-that fascinates as it explains her concepts of celebrity." * Kirkus * "Marcus's study of Bernhardt, a Jewish actress, is remarkable. Even though this is an academic text, it reads so well. And wow, could we read a bajillion more books on Sarah Bernhardt!!!"---Emily Burack, Alma "Marcus's great achievement here is that she leads us on a journey of understanding celebrity and stardom with a richer history than we are often want to take."---D. Gilson, Lambda Literary "The Drama of Celebrity by Sharon Marcus is a hybrid of biography and sociological treatise on one of the most important phenomena of modern times . . . why we are attracted to - or, conversely, repulsed by - celebrity culture."---Kitty Kelley, Washington Independent Review of Books "[An] insightful and engaging examination of celebrity culture . . . Marcus augments her analysis by drawing on types of sources that are rarely used, such as scrapbooks, letters and life writing produced by fans of celebrities. The inclusion of normally neglected voices adds richness and depth to this work, ensuring it is more comprehensive than most earlier studies of this intriguing subject."---Eleanor Fitzsimons, Literary Review "You don't have to be into celebrity culture to appreciate this readable study."---Steven Carroll, Sydney Morning Herald "I love the book."---Radhika Jones "In lucid prose, [Marcus] describes celebrity as a drama with three main characters: celebrities, the public that adores and judges them, and the media producers who exalt, criticize and satirize . . . The star of the book is Sarah Bernhardt . . . The book reproduces a rich trove of archival material which, if it does not bring Bernhardt back to life, at least reveals the scintillating liveliness of her image a century ago . . . Spend 200 pages with Sarah Bernhardt, and Kim Kardashian's provocations come to seem less shocking."---Irina Dumitrescu, Times Literary Supplement "[An] excellent new book . . . Marcus [has] performed a great service by illuminating the extraordinary gift possessed by [Sarah Bernhardt]."---Joseph Roach, Los Angeles Review of Books "The Drama of Celebrity is premised on a fundamental continuity between Bernhardt's era and our own, and Marcus is surely right to contend that the star did much to invent what we now recognize as celebrity culture."---Ruth Bernard Yeazell, New York Review of Books "[S]parky, feisty and compelling . . . . Sharon Marcus's book is tour de force and the author a total star."---Jonathan Margolis, Jewish Chronicle "Olivia Vinall delivers an engaging narration of Marcus's exhaustive research on the origins of modern celebrity culture . . . [her] pace and tone are just right for this fascinating investigation of celebrity in our media-driven world." * Audiofile Magazine * "The book will hold readers' interest and change their understanding of the triangular interaction involving celebrities, media producers and the public."---Richard Weigel, Bowling Green Daily News "[In The Drama of Celebrity], Marcus challenges everything that has been thought about the 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 told about celebrities and fans. The result: A high-stakes drama as endless as it is unpredictable." * Society's Books of Note * "One of the most widely researched and acutely conceptualized books that I have had the pleasure to read in recent years."---Nicholas White, Modern Language Review "[In The Drama of Celebrity,] Marcus traces a long history of modern celebrity culture, which she triangulates in negotiations among stars, fans, and the media. The book is elegantly organized, with each chapter turning around a key 'configuration' of celebrity culture-defiance, sensation, intimacy, multiplication, judgment, and merit-and a key celebrity, the actress Sarah Bernhardt."---Lauren Eriks Cline, Victorian Literature and Culture "Marcus' core thesis-that celebrity is a process rather than an individual-is a compelling one in that it challenges the reader to view fame as a social relationship, one in which we all play a role, regardless of whether or not we choose to engage with particular stars."---Andrea McDonnell, Journal of British Studies "Marcus's book is necessary reading for anyone wishing to understand the workings of celebrity."---Kelly Boyd, Journal of Victorian Culture "A serious, sophisticated, and potentially game changing study of celebrity."---Mary Lynn Stewart, American Historical Review