Stardom: Industry of Desire

Newspapers, magazines, TV talk shows, album covers -- all display a proliferation of film star images. In the past we have tended to see celebrities as cogs in a mass entertainment industry selling desires and ideologies. But since the 1970s, new approaches have explored the active role of the star in producing meanings, pleasures and identities for a diversity of audiences.Stardombrings together some of the best recent writing which represents these new approaches. Drawn from film history, sociology, textual analysis, audience research, psychoanalysis and cultural politics, the essays raise important questions for the politics of representation, the impact of the star on society and the cultural limitations and possibilities of stars. Contributors: Christine Gledhill; Janet Staiger; Richard de Cordova; Charles Eckert; Thomas Harris; Karen Alexander; Richard Dyer; Charlotte Cornelia Herzog; Jane Marie Gaines; Charles Wolfe; Behroze Ghandy; Rosie Thomas; Jackie Stacey; BarryKing; John O. Thompson; Andrew Britton; Michael Mourlet; David Lusted; Tessa Perkins; Miriam Hansen; Andrea Weiss; Kobena Mercer.

Acknowledgements	p. xii
Introduction	p. xiii
The System	p. 1
Seeing Stars	p. 3
The Emergence of the Star System in America	p. 17
The Carole Lombard in Macy's Window	p. 30
The Building of Popular Images	p. 40
Fatal Beauties	p. 45
Stars and Society	p. 55
Charisma	p. 57
Shirley Temple and the House of Rockefeller	p. 60
'Puffed Sleeves Before Tea-Time'	p. 74
The Return of Jimmy Stewart	p. 92
Three Indian Film Stars	p. 107
A Star is Born and the Construction of Authenticity	p. 132
Feminine Fascinations	p. 141
Performers and Signs	p. 165
Articulating Stardom	p. 167
Screen Acting and the Commutation Test	p. 183
Stars and Genre	p. 198
Signs of Melodrama	p. 207
Desire, Meaning and Politics	p. 231
In Defence of Violence	p. 233
The Politics of 'Jane Fonda'	p. 237
The Glut of the Personality	p. 251
Pleasure, Ambivalence, Identification	p. 259
'A Queer Feeling When I Look at You'	p. 283
Monster Metaphors	p. 300
Select Bibliography	p. 317
Index	p. 332
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

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Stardom: Industry of Desire

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