Book Launch
Celebrity Memoir: from Ghostwriting to Gender Politics
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https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030446208#reviews
In this timely analysis of the economics of access that surround contemporary female celebrity, Hannah Yelin reveals a culture that requires women to be constantly ‘baring all’ in physical exposure and psychic confessions. As famous women tell their story, in their ‘own words’, constellations of ghostwriters, intermediaries and market forces undermine assertions of authorship and access to the ‘real’ woman behind the public image. Yelin’s account of the presence of the ghostwriter offers a fascinating microcosm of the wider celebrity machine, with insights pertinent to all celebrity mediation. Yelin surveys life-writing genres including fiction, photo-diary, comic-strip, and art anthology, as well as more ‘traditional’ autobiographical forms; covering a wide range of media platforms and celebrity contexts including reality TV, YouTube, pop stardom, and porn/glamour modelling. Despite this diversity, Yelin reveals seemingly inescapable conventions, as well as spaces for resistance. Celebrity Memoir: from Ghostwriting to Gender Politics offers new insights on the curtailment of women’s voices, with ramifications for literary studies of memoir, feminist media studies, celebrity studies, and work on the politics of production in the creative industries.
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Reviews
“Thought-provoking and innovative, Yelin's work with ghost-writing explores the games of reconstruction, the play of presenting the “real”. At its core, it is a study of gender and (public) subjectivity. In its blending of celebrity studies approaches and autobiography, it is building a new and relevant research direction.”
(P. David Marshall, Deakin University)
“Yelin takes a deep-dive approach to unpack authenticity and the phenomenon of the constructed image. This compelling argument about agency and selfhood illuminates a complex and highly gendered process of continual negotiation. A noteworthy intervention.”
(Hannah Hamad, Cardiff University)
“Who is holding the pen and why does it matter? Yelin responds to these questions with an analysis that is both forensic and fascinating, casting the world's most famous women in a new light.”
(Elizabeth Pears, BuzzFeed)
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