The dissertation is an investigation of modern subjectivity as it is expressed in the form of celebrities. First of all, it establishes that celebrities are linked to both the development of a democratic culture, where there is an investment in conceptions of the popular will for political and cultural legitimation, and consumer capitalism, where power and subjectivity are intimately connected to the commodity and a consumer identity that is formed through commodities. Secondly, the dissertation establishes that the significance and meaning of the celebrity in contemporary culture are linked to its dual formation by the culture industries and by the audience which embraces and remakes the meaning of the produced celebrity. A critical reading of individual celebrities that have emerged from different domains of the culture industries is conducted which integrates a hermeneutic of intention into a hermeneutic of reception. Thirdly, the work shows how the forms of public subjectivity privileged in the entertainment industries are elemental parts of the construction of the contemporary political leader. / The dissertation concludes that the celebrity, along with other forms of public personalities that emerge in the public sphere, is an attempt to contain or embody a certain type of power that is difficult to sustain because of its connection to mass sentiment and supposed forms of irrationality. The celebrity then is the continual attempt to embody this affective power in contemporary political and popular culture.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.39501 |
| Date | January 1992 |
| Creators | Marshall, P. David |
| Contributors | Finlay, Marike (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Graduate Communications Program.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001327399, proquestno: NN87592, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
Page generated in 0.0019 seconds