Princess Diana, Jackie O, Grace Kelly—the star icon is the most talked about yet least understood persona. The object of adoration, fantasy, and cult obsession, the star icon is a celebrity, yet she is also something more: a dazzling figure at the center of a media pantomime that is at once voyeuristic and zealously guarded. With skill and humor, Daniel Herwitz pokes at the gears of the celebrity-making machine, recruiting a philosopher's interest in the media, an eye for society, and a love of popular culture to divine our yearning for these iconic figures and the role they play in our lives.
Herwitz portrays the star icon as caught between transcendence and trauma. An effervescent being living on a distant, exalted planet, the star icon is also a melodramatic heroine desperate to escape her life and the ever-watchful eye of the media. The public buoys her up and then eagerly watches her fall, her collapse providing a satisfying conclusion to a story sensationally told—while leaving the public yearning for a rebirth.
Herwitz locates this double life in the opposing tensions of film, television, religion, and consumer culture, offering fresh perspectives on these subjects while ingeniously mapping society's creation (and destruction) of these special aesthetic stars. Herwitz has a soft spot for popular culture yet remains deeply skeptical of public illusion. He worries that the media distances us from even minimal insight into those who are transfigured into star icons. It also blinds us to the shaping of our political present.
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
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Subtopic
Film History & CriticismIndex
Social SciencesTable of contents
- Cover
- Half title
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- 1. The Candle in the Wind
- 2. There Is Only One Star Icon (Except in a Warhol Picture)
- 3. Therefore Not All Idols Are American
- 4. A Star Is Born
- 5. The Film Aura: An Intermediate Case
- 6. Stargazing and Spying
- 7. Teleaesthetics
- 8. Diana Haunted and Hunted on TV
- 9. Star Aura in Consumer Society (and Other Fatalities)
- Notes
- Index
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Yes, you can access The Star as Icon by Daniel Herwitz in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Film History & Criticism. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.