Making stars : biography and celebrity in eighteenth-century Britain / edited by Nora Nachumi and Kristina Straub.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Straub, Kristina, 1951- editor.

Nachumi, Nora, editor.

Series:

Performing Celebrity

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Biography as a literary form.

English prose literature--18th century--History and criticism.

English prose literature.

Fame--History--18th century.

Fame.

Celebrities--Great Britain--History--18th century.

Celebrities.

England--Civilization--18th century.

England.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (397 pages)

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, [2022]

Summary:

"In bringing biography and celebrity together, the essays in Making Stars interrogate contemporary and current understandings of each. Although biography was not invented in the eighteenth century, the period saw the emergence of works that focus on individuals who are interesting as much, if not more, for their everyday, lived experience than for their status or actions. At the same time, celebrity emerged as public fascination for the private lives of publicly visible individuals. Biography and celebrity are mutually constitutive, but in complex and varied ways that this volume unpacks. Contributors to this volume present us a picture of eighteenth-century celebrity that was mediated across multiple sites, demonstrating that eighteenth-century celebrity culture in Britain was more pervasive, diverse and, in many ways, more egalitarian, than previously supposed"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Series Page

Title Page

Copyright

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction / Nora Nachumi and Kristina Straub

Part I. Representing Celebrity on the Stage and the Page

1. The Periodical and the Prism: Two Ways of Working at Celebrity in the Careers of Catherine Clive, Eliza Haywood, and Charlotte Charke / Stuart Sherman

2. Embodied Stage Biography and Celebrity in the Eighteenth Century / Semane Parsons

3. Image/Counterimage: Contesting Celebrity in Graphic Satire / Heather Mcpherson

Part II. Marketing Celebrity in the Material World

4. Modular Pope: Letters, Portraits, and the Collectible Celebrity / Sören Hammerschmidt

5. Biographical Fictions: Improvisation, Temporality, and the Celebrated Gunning Sisters, 1750 to Today / Kevin Bourque

6. Art and Merchandise, Followers and Fragility: Creating the Blueprint for Animal Celebrity / Glynis Ridley

Part III. Life Writing as Self-Defense

7. Neglected Genius: William Henry Ireland's Quest for Anonymous Celebrity / Jack Lynch

8. Interpreting a Life: Theophilus Cibber, Celebrity Biography, and Public Adjudication / Elaine Mcgirr

9. Legal Stardom: Law, Life Writing, and Celebrity in the Case of Mary Bowes, Countess of Strathmore / Sarah Ailwood

Part IV. The Body and the Body Politic

10. Creating Celebratory Memory: The Tombeaux des Princes / Anne Betty Weinshenker

11. Embodied Politics: Marlborough, Celebrity, and Secret History / Rebecca Tierney-Hynes

12. The Everyday Celebrity of "Sir" Jeffrey Dunstan, Mayor of Garrat / Miriam L. Wallace

Part V. Whose Life is It Anyway?

13. A "Universally Sorrowful Sensation": National Mourning, Narrative, and Celebrity in the Posthumous Biographies of Princess Charlotte Augusta / Teri Doerksen.

14. Spectacular Materials: The Afterlives of Murderess Mary Blandy / Kirsten T. Saxton

15. Extra-Illustration, Participatory Biography, and the Construction of Celebrity / Jane Wessel

Notes on Contributors

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-64453-267-0

OCLC:

1342532692