[ecrea] CFP: The Star and Celebrity Confessional

>CFP:  The Star and Celebrity Confessional
>       Special Themed Issue Social Semiotics
>       Guest Editor: Sean Redmond
>
>
>Social Semiotics (http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/10350330.asp) is
>soliciting papers for a special themed issue on the star and celebrity
>confessional. The confessional, taken to be any moment in which a star,
>celebrity, or fan engages in revelatory acts, has become one of the dominant
>ways in which fame is circulated and consumed.
>
>The celebrity confessional involves Rthe combination of reflexivity about
>the business of being a celebrity, emotional interiority and self
>criticism¹: and it is where the fan is Rinvited to feel with their feelings¹
>(Littler, 2004: 13/18). Through the confessional text (played out in the
>biopic, documentary, talk-show interview, self-reflexive song lyric, star
>blog, and celebrity magazine interview), the celebrity seemingly attempts to
>speak openly and honestly about where they have come from. Such a
>confession(s) would include their humble beginnings; the troubles, hardships
>and corruption they may have faced along their journey to fame; who they
>really are underneath the fame gown; and how alike they are to the everyday
>people who watch their films, buy their records, go to their concerts, and
>watch their soccer or tennis matches. Similarly, the fan/consumer who
>confesses their desire for, and identification with, the star or celebrity,
>on line, in diaries, reveal a para-social relationship that is in part
>devotional, obsessional, but also potentially intimate and fully lived. It
>is one of the mechanisms Rthrough which relationships, identity, and social
>and cultural norms are debated, evaluated, modified and shared¹ (Turner,
>2004:24).
>
>In this Special Edition of the journal Social Semiotics, the different
>manifestations, meanings, and processes of the star and celebrity
>confessional will be explored. Potential themes/texts/contexts/case studies
>could include:
>
>The confessional interview
>The confessional song
>Authenticity and artifice as modes of confessional expression
>Confession as myth
>The race/sex/sexuality/class of the confession
>Confession as intimacy
>Fan confessionals
>Confession as transgression and empowerment
>Confession as a form of group belonging
>Religious deification and the confession
>Confession as therapy
>The commodity confessional text
>The confessional star or celebrity
>Confession as damage
>Confession as obsession
>The confessional talk of fame
>
>Social Semiotics is committed to inter and cross-disciplinary approaches
>that are politically and historically engaged, and on publishing papers that
>reveal something profound about the nature of everyday life.
>
>Please send your abstract (500-750 words in length), or completed essay
>(5,000-7,000 words, Harvard style of referencing), plus a brief biographic
>statement, as e-mail attachments (in Word ) to the editor:
>
>Sean Redmond
>(Sean.redmond /at/ vuw.ac.nz)
>Senior Lecturer in Film Studies,
>Victoria University of Wellington,
>Wellington,
>New Zealand
>
>Deadline for abstract submission:  February 1st 2007
>
>If your abstract is chosen for final consideration, you will have until
>October 31st (2007) to complete the first draft. Completed Essays submitted
>by the February deadline will have a similar period of time for any
>re-drafting that needs to be done.
>
>Queries or questions to (sean.redmond /at/ vuw.ac.nz)
>
>

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Carpentier Nico (Phd)
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European Communication Research and Education Association
Web: http://www.ecrea.eu
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E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
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