Due 2025.12.10  6:00PM

Your final assignment (tentative): The Celebrity/Fandom Culture Spectacle.

During our last sessions, we studied and discussed the celebrity spectacle. We discussed fans and fandom, the political celebrity, fangirls, along with a foray into celebrity theory and some of its history – so there was a lot to process. What follows is your final unit essay assignment and there are four parts – the first is an essay on the “definition” of celebrity and why this is important; the second concerns the overall unit, the third with the Tiffany text and the last deals with theory. Please respond to the four items in one document – You could label them A, B and C, and D, so that it is easier for you to organize and for me to read. Thanks, sjf.

Please note: no other research is required other than what we read and discussed in class – and that includes the material from class sessions #10-14, the Tiffany text, and your own spectacle culture presentations, notes and class readings.

A. Boorstin, Gabler, and Williamson in conversation. About two - three (2-3) pages should suffice. Discuss how these three scholars help us understand celebrity and celebrity culture. In your essay put them in conversation and that conversation should include the following:  First, how do these scholars conceptualize “celebrity” or celebrity culture? That is, how does each author define, describe and account for the idea or the phenomenon of celebrity and its place in contemporary culture. Second, since the various authors use case studies (for example – Charles Lindbergh’s celebrity ascent is discussed by two of them) explain how each author you have chosen uses their individual case studies to highlight their ideas of celebrity. For this item, no concluding paragraph is necessary – although an introduction that states your “controlling idea” or thematic approach is.

B. Understanding the practice of celebrity culture. During these class sessions we also discussed issues and concepts of celebrity culture in our 1. fan culture unit, (this would include Blinded by the Light) 2. the political celebrity unit. Choose one (1) of these units and explain what you think is the major takeaway of this unit with an appropriate explanation and how it sheds light on the contemporary celebrity political or fandom spectacle. About two (2) pages would suffice.

C. As for Everything I Need I Get From You, choose a chapter from those that we read and discussed. Then, take Richard Schickel's famous phrase, that celebrity culture was "the principle source of motive power in putting across ideas of every kind -- social, political, aesthetic, moral,” and discuss the major idea of your chosen chapter. About two (2) pages would suffice.

D. Scholars and theorists. During these class sessions we came across several scholars who were channeled by the authors we read -- for example, Drake and Higgins use the work of three scholars to put their subject matter into a tradition of inquiry; Tiffany's work is replete with references to culture studies scholars; choose one (1) of these scholars and discuss how his/her work helps us understand an aspect of this unit. One (1) page should suffice.