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Claims to Fame : Celebrity in Contemporary America by Joshua Gamson (1994, Trade Paperback)

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Format: Paperback or Softback. ISBN: 9780520083530. Your source for quality books at reduced prices. Condition Guide. Publication Date: 3/2/1994. Item Availability.

About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherUniversity of California Press

ISBN-100520083539

ISBN-139780520083530

eBay Product ID (ePID)639412

Product Key Features

Number of Pages270 Pages

Publication NameClaims to Fame : Celebrity in Contemporary America

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year1994

SubjectRich & Famous, Popular Culture, Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Customs & Traditions

TypeTextbook

AuthorJoshua Gamson

Subject AreaSocial Science, Biography & Autobiography

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.1 in

Item Weight14.4 Oz

Item Length0.9 in

Item Width0.6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN93-028188

Dewey Edition20

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal306.40973

SynopsisMoving from People magazine to publicists' offices to tours of stars' homes, Joshua Gamson investigates the larger-than-life terrain of American celebrity culture. In the first major academic work since the early 1940s to seriously analyze the meaning of fame in American life, Gamson begins with the often-heard criticisms that today's heroes have been replaced by pseudoheroes, that notoriety has become detached from merit. He draws on literary and sociological theory, as well as interviews with celebrity-industry workers, to untangle the paradoxical nature of an American popular culture that is both obsessively invested in glamour and fantasy yet also aware of celebrity's transparency and commercialism. Gamson examines the contemporary "dream machine" that publicists, tabloid newspapers, journalists, and TV interviewers use to create semi-fictional icons. He finds that celebrity watchers, for whom spotting celebrities becomes a spectator sport akin to watching football or fireworks, glean their own rewards in a game that turns as often on playing with inauthenticity as on identifying with stars. Gamson also looks at the "celebritization" of politics and the complex questions it poses regarding image and reality. He makes clear that to understand American public culture, we must understand that strange, ubiquitous phenomenon, celebrity.

LC Classification NumberE169.G25 1994