Celebrity is one of the most central shaping and distorting forces in our society. My PhD thesis interrogates the nature of fame in contemporary culture that actively promotes individuality, image, consumerist lifestyles, and the constructed nature of the self. Celebrity culture is marked by a confusion of realms between public and private, talent and manufacture, and image and the ‘real self.' The thesis examines representations of success, failure and death in celebrity culture during the period between the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 and the end of year 2010. The thesis provides an analysis based on feminist thought through reading individual celebrities' narratives. The emphasis is on looking at fame as a process of success and failure, as represented in auto/biographies and the media. The thesis considers how media representations change the perception of celebrities and also how celebrities themselves affect these representations through confessional discourse, autobiographies, self-promotion, and image construction. Therefore, the thesis will analyse how success, failure and death are represented through individual celebrities' narratives, using case studies to examine both confessional and biographical/autobiographical discourses and media discourses. The emphasis is on tabloid media and an examination of the continuities between success, failure and death, revealing how representations of celebrity rely on narrative, sensationalism and the personal realm instead of facts, objectivity and the public sphere. The thesis pays particular attention to the analysis of the gendered nature of celebrity autobiographies with the aim of revealing how modern celebrity autobiographies confuse traditional gender boundaries. There is a new, decidedly negative side to celebrity culture, particularly evident in the media's emphasis on failure, scandal and death, reactions to which often take a nasty, bullying tone. The methods used by celebrities to deal with fame are varied and compelling and may offer us insights into how lives are negotiated in contemporary society.

In the south-eastern Volta Region of Ghana, a form of female religious affiliation to local shrines commonly known as trokosi, has been the subject of a campaign consisting of Christian-based NGOs and various government agencies that has successfully criminalised the practice and organised ‘liberations' and rehabilitations of the initiates. Protagonists of the abolition campaign argue that trokosiwo are illegitimately initiated to specific shrines based on an offence committed by another lineage member, acting as a perpetual figure of restitution. They also argue that the practice constitutes a form of ‘female ritual slavery' by translating the term trokosi as “slave of the gods” and arguing that the socio-economic status and social relations of the trokosiwo indicate their ‘slavery'. The highly publicised abolition campaign stimulated a counter-campaign, led by a neo-traditional organisation, that argued that the female shrine initiates are Queen-Mothers (rather than slaves), role-models to their lineage (rather than figures of restitution), and are socially privileged. Central to these contestations has been the figure of the fiasidi, particularly those initiated to shrines in one locality, Klikor. Abolitionists define fiasidiwo as being a variant of trokosi, despite some key differences. Those that contest this representation justified their position by highlighting the socio-economic position of fiasidiwo in Klikor's three shrines and pointing out the critical ways it differed from the representation of the Trokosi Slave. Members of the Klikor shrines also became political actors in the debates that ensued, by developing a close alliance to the neo-traditionalist organisation and creating their own organisation to network with similar shrines. This thesis considers the debates around trokosi and fiasidi at the national level and explores in detail the meaning attached to fiasidi and her position in the Klikor shrines and community. At its core, is an ethnography of the three shrines, their ritual specialists and initiates. I explore the way in which meaning is ascribed to the fiasidi, through narratives of the past, through the symbolism of key rituals and through the structured interactions between petitioners and ritual specialists. A concluding section then considers the intersection between these meanings and the contested terrains of religion in the debates about the Trokosi Slaves.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Recognizable by their cunning exploits and gray morality, tricksters can be found in mythology, folklore, and religions throughout the world. Two tricksters were familiar to the Yoruba people in West Africa, Ajapa and Eshu, and their stories and abilities provide insight to the functions fulfilled by trickster characters. Upon the introduction of Regla de Ocha (or Santeria) to Cuba following the transatlantic slave trade, a new figure emerges, known for his tricks and adaptability. Due to the West African influence in Santeria religious practices, the original roles and traits of Eshu and Ajapa are analyzed for comparison, but Eleggua, the Santeria trickster, has become his own entity. Through ethnographic observations, personal conversations, and a collection of various sources and manuals, this project explores Eleggua and the trickster presence in Cuba. Although his role as a trickster has changed throughout the past few centuries, Eleggua and the trickster identity persists in modern Cuba, visible in religious practices and secular exchanges.

During the 17th and 18th century a number of Jews settled on the English island of Barbados and the Dutch island of St. Eustatius. The Jews on both islands erected synagogues and a number of key structures essential for a practicing religious community. Although they had strong connections that spanned across geo-political boundaries, the synagogue compounds on each island became key places for the creation and maintenance of a Jewish community. I argue that these synagogue compounds represented diasporic places that must be understood through a tri-partite model that explores the relationships between the Jewish community and its hostland, other dispersed Jewish communities, and the homeland. Furthermore, during the early modern period, these compounds were "heterotopias" within the colonial landscape. Heterotopias, as places of alternative ordering, speak to the constructions of social and cultural difference. For the Jews, the synagogue compounds provided them a chance to create a place founded on their cultural values and ideals within the Christian controlled spaces of both islands. Alternatively, for the Christian communities on the islands, the synagogue compounds highlighted how the Jewish community had different loyalties and values than they did. In exploring the ways that these places served as heterotopias, and for how long they were sites of alternative ordering, this dissertation demonstrates the fundamental role that places play in the formation and maintenance of diasporic communities and the dynamic relationship between spaces, places, and identities in the early modern period.