Modernism is the literature of celebrity / Jonathan Goldman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Goldman, Jonathan (Jonathan E.)

Series:

Literary modernism series.

Literary modernism series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--20th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

Modernism (Literature)--United States.

Modernism (Literature).

English literature--20th century--History and criticism.

English literature.

Modernism (Literature)--Great Britain.

Celebrities--History--20th century.

Celebrities.

Fame--History--20th century.

Fame.

Popular culture--History--20th century.

Popular culture.

Physical Description:

x, 204 p. : ill., ports.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The phenomenon of celebrity burst upon the world scene about a century ago, as movies and modern media brought exceptional, larger-than-life personalities before the masses. During the same era, modernist authors were creating works that defined high culture in our society and set aesthetics apart from the middle- and low-brow culture in which celebrity supposedly resides. To challenge this ingrained dichotomy between modernism and celebrity, Jonathan Goldman offers a provocative new reading of early twentieth-century culture and the formal experiments that constitute modernist literature's unmistakable legacy. He argues that the literary innovations of the modernists are indeed best understood as a participant in the popular phenomenon of celebrity. Presenting a persuasive argument as well as a chronicle of modernism's and celebrity's shared history, Modernism Is the Literature of Celebrity begins by unraveling the uncanny syncretism between Oscar Wilde's writings and his public life. Goldman explains that Wilde, in shaping his instantly identifiable public image, provided a model for both literary and celebrity cultures in the decades that followed. In subsequent chapters, Goldman traces this lineage through two luminaries of the modernist canon, James Joyce and Gertrude Stein, before turning to the cinema of mega-star Charlie Chaplin. He investigates how celebrity and modernism intertwine in the work of two less obvious modernist subjects, Jean Rhys and John Dos Passos. Turning previous criticism on its head, Goldman demonstrates that the authorial self-fashioning particular to modernism and generated by modernist technique helps create celebrity as we now know it.

Contents:

Introduction: modernism is the literature of celebrity: critical problem solving: modernism and popular culture; the field of modernism and the culture of celebrity; considering celebrity; why modernism is the literature of celebrity

Oscar Wilde, fashioning fame: copying oneself; judging by appearances in Dorian Gray; the tragic commodity; deep thoughts: embodying the subject in De profundis

James Joyce and modernist exceptionalism: styling the author; "peeping and prying into greenroom gossip of the day"; "famous son of a famous father": author, character, Holy Ghost; the dream of immateriality; E.T.: the extra-textual; the ghost of the author

Gertrude Stein, everybody's celebrity: elite by association; unstable values; the trademark of time; name of constant value; a democracy of one

Charlie Chaplin, author of modernist celebrity: happy endings; an author is born; sign of the times; the object of celebrity

Rhys, the obscure: the literature of celebrity at the margins

Epilogue. "Everybody who was anybody was there": after modernism, after celebrity, John Dos Passos.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-292-73488-3

OCLC:

864844352