The Drama of Celebrity by Sharon Marcus (review)

In concluding her detailed study of celebrity culture, Sharon Marcus notes that "most histories of celebrity culture emphasize change over time and variations across media; this one has highlighted continuities" (216). The Drama of Celebrity not only generates "a new theory of celebrity culture" (3) but also argues that there isn't anything "new" at all about modern celebrity. Instead, the interactions of modern celebrity culture are rooted in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when "the modern meanings of the words 'celebrity' and 'star' first became widespread" (9). Alongside this new theory, The Drama of Celebrity carefully traces the beginnings of "celebrity culture" as we know it to the historical theatre, revising the work of such critics as Richard Dyer, Leo Lowenthal, and Walter Benjamin, who find these beginnings in the film industry and Hollywood studio system.

One of the major questions Marcus's study seeks to answer is: "Why did modern celebrity culture emerge when it did?" (10). Throughout the text, this question is answered by noting in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries specific advancements in technology, new communication practices, and a growing focus on individualism. Marcus's primary archival methodology—much of the text takes as evidence a range of understudied theatre scrapbooks—emphasizes the basis of celebrity culture in these specific shifts. What Marcus terms "the golden age of theatrical scrapbooks" stands as physical evidence of the centrality of specific "technological advances in photography and printing" (97) and indicates the continuity of the mediated interactions sought by fans. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, fans curated, edited, and repurposed images, much as fandom today relies on the sharing of star- and media-created content across various online and print platforms.

Through this exploration of historical continuity, Marcus defines "the drama of celebrity" as the theory that celebrity culture is formed from the triangular relationship between the media, the public, and the star. Contrary to previous theories such as that of Joseph Roach that position stars and fans alike as "helpless before It," that unnameable factor of celebrity (48), Marcus's theory emphasizes the agency of all three sides of the triangular relationship. These three factors are more conventionally addressed as separate contributors to a culture of celebrity; Marcus argues, in contrast, that the three must interact, working either in conjunction or in opposition. "Celebrity culture exists," she concludes, "only when publics, media producers, and well-known individuals engage with one another. If one group were to drop out or ignore the others, celebrity and fandom would disappear" (217). The triangular relationship located at the center of "celebrity," then, is one of power but also one of relative equality. The power held by any of the three elements at a given time can never be so allencompassing as to eclipse the contributions of the other two.

Each chapter dissects a form of this triangular relationship, and each notes a specific power balance between the three elements. Evocative titles such as "Defiance" (chapter 1), "Savagery" (chapter 3), and "Merit" (chapter 8) locate the point of interaction between the three elements and the balance of power addressed in that chapter. "Defiance," for example, highlights the attraction of a rebellious star and traces the effects of a celebrity's deviation from social expectation on their fans and on media representation. "Intimacy" (chapter 4) details the many ways fans have sought to create a sense of closeness to celebrities, from collections of merchandise to stalking. The second chapter, "Sensation," is particularly persuasive. Here Marcus most thoroughly connects the text's varied streams of analysis, linking the triangular relationship of celebrity culture, and the mutual exchange of that relationship, to the argument for historical continuity. In the eighteenth century's "rise of overpowering acting" (51), Marcus locates a power dynamic between fans eager to allow "their autonomy, reason, and individuality [to] melt away under the influence of the stars" (51), stars equally eager to "dominate" from the stage (45), and media that encourages, supports, and even...