Gothic Celebrity
Fame and Immortality from Lord Byron to Lady Gaga
Gothic Celebrity
Fame and Immortality from Lord Byron to Lady Gaga
Description
Exploring the provocative intersection of celebrity and the Gothic, this book examines representations of decaying, dead and undead celebrities in literary texts, visual media and popular culture. As far back as the Romantic period, Western culture has figured celebrities as quasi-immortal beings. Challenging popular perceptions about the triviality of celebrity culture, Harriet Fletcher puts forward both Gothic and celebrity as vehicles for understanding how modern society processes death and ageing.
With case studies ranging from Lord Byron and Oscar Wilde to Marilyn Monroe and Lady Gaga, Gothic Celebrity examines a diverse array of cultural works, including John Polidori's short story 'The Vampyre', The Picture of Dorian Gray, the Hollywood films Sunset Boulevard and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Andy Warhol's silkscreen prints and FX's American Horror Story. In doing so, it traces the figure of the celebrity through Gothic conventions such as vampires, portraits and ageing bodies as they manifest across literature, film, art and television. Fascinating and original, with shrewd consideration of historical context, this book stakes a claim for the pertinence of Gothic studies to cultural history and media studies.
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Table of Contents
2. The Origins of Gothic Celebrity: Lord Byron, John Polidori and the Celebrity Vampire
3. Unstable Immortality: Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Victorian Celebrity Photography
4. Faded Stars: The Gothic Performance of Ageing in Sunset Boulevard and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
5. The Death of the Star: Celebrity Decay in Andy Warhol's Gothic Portraits
6. Transcendent Transformations: Lady Gaga's Reinventive Vampirism in American Horror Story: Hotel
7. Conclusion: Reclaiming Decay
Bibliography
Index
Product details
| Published | 27 Nov 2025 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 240 |
| ISBN | 9781350447547 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 16 bw illus |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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