120691 PS Proseminar Cultural and Media Studies (2020W)

On March 30, 2020, The New York Times published an article by Amanda Hess titled "Celebrity Culture is Burning." In it, Hess explores the intersections between celebrities and the Covid-19 pandemic and foregrounds the every-present and now extremely highlighted class-disparities between stars and their audiences. However, the author also acknowledges the often welcomed distractions caused by the consumption of celebrities’ online content during such times of despair. What this goes to show is that celebrities embody manifold functions and are therefore a significant part of society.

In this class, we will explore how contemporary American celebrity cultures are produced, distributed and consumed by looking at a plethora of cultural texts from different media contexts. Among other things, we will theorize fame and celebrity, discuss the function of the celebrity body, trace the beginnings of celebrity culture in the United States, look at the role of scandals and gossip for the construction of star images and explore the economy and production of celebrity personas. To better illustrate all these aspects, we will analyze individual case studies of fictional and non-fictional star texts in each session, ranging from more traditional celebrities like Britney Spears to online personalities such as Jenna Marbles. The focus of this class will especially be on the current cultural cultural moment in the United States and we will ultimately seek to answer how celebrity texts are shaped by cultural politics - and in turn how they shape cultural politics just as much.

At the end of this course, students will be able to critically analyze contemporary celebrity texts in American popular culture with methods such as visual and discourse analysis and close reading. Students will also have gained a theoretical understanding of celebrity and fame in its cultural context through secondary readings from the field of celebrity studies, media studies and American studies.